By Joyce Meyer - From the book New Day, New You: 365 Devotions for Enjoying Everyday Life by Joyce Meyer. Copyright © 2007 by Joyce Meyer. Published by FaithWords. All rights reserved.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ~ 1 Corinthians 2:2 (KJV)
This is such a glorious Scripture. You and I try to know everything, and here Paul is telling us that he did just the opposite. Unlike us, who worry about all the things we don't know, Paul was trying to get rid of some of the things he did know. Why? Because he had discovered that, as the Bible teaches, sometimes knowledge can be aggravating (see Ecclesiastes 12:12). He had also discovered that knowledge can create pride, . . . [Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud) (1 Corinthians 8:1).
Sometimes the more knowledge we accumulate, the more problems we create. Often we plot and scheme and finagle to discover things that would be better left alone. Have you ever schemed to find out something that was going on and then when you did discover it, you sincerely wished you had stayed out of it? That is why Paul said that he had determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Sometimes the more I think I know, the harder it is to follow God.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Victory One Step at a Time
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. (Deuteronomy 7:22)
When God led His people into the Promised Land, He did so step by step. If He had allowed them to annihilate their enemies at once, the land would have been too difficult to manage. So He allowed some of the enemies to remain for a time in order to maintain the land and suppress the wildlife. In doing so, God taught His people to trust Him step by step. He gave them only as much responsibility as they could handle at one time.
As God leads you in your Christian growth, He will allow challenges that match your character and relationship to Him. God will not totally change your character at once when you become a Christian. Rather, He will lead you through a process to become more like His Son. He will keep working in an area in your life until it is controlled by the Holy Spirit. You may eagerly desire maturity in every area of your character, but steady, gradual growth is more lasting. God will not take shortcuts in His process of making you like Christ. He sees your life from eternity and will take as long as necessary to produce lasting spiritual growth in you.
Do not become impatient while God is producing Christlikeness in you. Do not seek more responsibilities than those He has given you. Obey all that you know He has asked, and He will lead you at a pace that fits your present character and His purposes for you.
And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. (Deuteronomy 7:22)
When God led His people into the Promised Land, He did so step by step. If He had allowed them to annihilate their enemies at once, the land would have been too difficult to manage. So He allowed some of the enemies to remain for a time in order to maintain the land and suppress the wildlife. In doing so, God taught His people to trust Him step by step. He gave them only as much responsibility as they could handle at one time.
As God leads you in your Christian growth, He will allow challenges that match your character and relationship to Him. God will not totally change your character at once when you become a Christian. Rather, He will lead you through a process to become more like His Son. He will keep working in an area in your life until it is controlled by the Holy Spirit. You may eagerly desire maturity in every area of your character, but steady, gradual growth is more lasting. God will not take shortcuts in His process of making you like Christ. He sees your life from eternity and will take as long as necessary to produce lasting spiritual growth in you.
Do not become impatient while God is producing Christlikeness in you. Do not seek more responsibilities than those He has given you. Obey all that you know He has asked, and He will lead you at a pace that fits your present character and His purposes for you.
The Race
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7
"There is much satisfaction in finishing something you have begun! The success of a race is determined not only by how well you begin but also by how well you end. Many athletes can begin a race impressively, but if they stumble or are injured or lack the stamina to finish, their good start is useless. Paul rejoiced that he had not only begun the race but he had also finished it. His prize was a robust faith in God and a life filled with God's powerful presence.
The Christian life is not easy. Some mistakenly assume that once they become children of God, their struggles are over. Many Christians begin their walk with Christ enthusiastically, but as the pressures mount, they lose heart and abandon their pilgrimage.
Paul described His Christian life as a battle. There were times when he struggled, and only through perseverance could he continue. It may surprise us to know that the great apostle had to struggle at times to be faithful to God. Paul faced persecution, misunderstanding, betrayal, and death threats. His Christian life was anything but easy, yet he persevered.
Your faith in God is not proven by beginning the race but by enduring to the finish. Publicly announcing your commitment to Christ in your church does not compare with a lifetime of devotion to His cause. Use Paul as your model. Live your life in such a way that you can one day conclude, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!"
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7
"There is much satisfaction in finishing something you have begun! The success of a race is determined not only by how well you begin but also by how well you end. Many athletes can begin a race impressively, but if they stumble or are injured or lack the stamina to finish, their good start is useless. Paul rejoiced that he had not only begun the race but he had also finished it. His prize was a robust faith in God and a life filled with God's powerful presence.
The Christian life is not easy. Some mistakenly assume that once they become children of God, their struggles are over. Many Christians begin their walk with Christ enthusiastically, but as the pressures mount, they lose heart and abandon their pilgrimage.
Paul described His Christian life as a battle. There were times when he struggled, and only through perseverance could he continue. It may surprise us to know that the great apostle had to struggle at times to be faithful to God. Paul faced persecution, misunderstanding, betrayal, and death threats. His Christian life was anything but easy, yet he persevered.
Your faith in God is not proven by beginning the race but by enduring to the finish. Publicly announcing your commitment to Christ in your church does not compare with a lifetime of devotion to His cause. Use Paul as your model. Live your life in such a way that you can one day conclude, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!"
Monday, August 30, 2010
Choose to Rejoice
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:25
"Your joy as a Christian should not depend on your circumstances. Joy comes from God, and therefore it cannot be affected by what is outside of you. Don't be fooled into letting the actions of others determine your joy. True joy comes from knowing that God Himself lives within you and has fellowship with you, regardless of your environment. Real joy lies in the knowledge that holy God has completely forgiven you of every sin, and even now, He has a home prepared in heaven where you can spend eternity with Him (John 14:3). The circumstances of your life cannot change these truths!
Paul and Silas faced some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable. They were falsely accused, arrested, and imprisoned. They were beaten and shackled in the darkest, coldest section of the prison. But they refused to allow their horrific situation to dampen their joy! They did not blame God for allowing these things to happen to them. Instead, they praised Him for His goodness! In the darkness of the night, they prayed and they sang. God brought a miracle that released them from their chains, but perhaps the greater miracle was that His Holy Spirit could so fill them that even in their painful imprisonment they could overflow with joy!
Do not allow difficult events to cancel the joy of knowing you are a child of God. Choose to allow God's Spirit to fill you with His unquenchable joy, and your life will be a miracle to those who watch you face the trials that come."
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:25
"Your joy as a Christian should not depend on your circumstances. Joy comes from God, and therefore it cannot be affected by what is outside of you. Don't be fooled into letting the actions of others determine your joy. True joy comes from knowing that God Himself lives within you and has fellowship with you, regardless of your environment. Real joy lies in the knowledge that holy God has completely forgiven you of every sin, and even now, He has a home prepared in heaven where you can spend eternity with Him (John 14:3). The circumstances of your life cannot change these truths!
Paul and Silas faced some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable. They were falsely accused, arrested, and imprisoned. They were beaten and shackled in the darkest, coldest section of the prison. But they refused to allow their horrific situation to dampen their joy! They did not blame God for allowing these things to happen to them. Instead, they praised Him for His goodness! In the darkness of the night, they prayed and they sang. God brought a miracle that released them from their chains, but perhaps the greater miracle was that His Holy Spirit could so fill them that even in their painful imprisonment they could overflow with joy!
Do not allow difficult events to cancel the joy of knowing you are a child of God. Choose to allow God's Spirit to fill you with His unquenchable joy, and your life will be a miracle to those who watch you face the trials that come."
Giving Your Best
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 17:1
"God's love moved Him to sacrifice that which meant the most to Him -- His only Son. Our response, if we truly understand His love for us, is the desire to give back to God that which means the most to us.
The Old Testament reveals that God set forth high standards for the sacrifices He required of His people. A worthy sacrifice had to cost the people something. As their hearts shifted away from God, the people began struggling to give God costly offerings. They would bring blind, lame, and sick animals, assuming God could not tell the difference (Mal. 1:8). God saw what they were doing and declared their offerings to be in vain (Mal. 1:10). Throughout the Old Testament period, God was setting the stage for the ultimate, perfect, and sinless sacrifice of His Son for the sins of humanity.
The offerings we give back to God reveal our hearts' condition. A heart that overflows with gratitude for God's love will respond in selfless devotion. If we are unwilling to sacrifice our time, our possessions, our money, or our energy, we indicate that we do not love God as He desires. God takes delight in the person who gives to Him cheerfully out of a loving heart, a person who understands that God is the source of everything he has and who knows that God will more than compensate for whatever is sacrificed for Him (2 Cor. 9:8).
If you struggle in giving your best to God ie...your time, heart, money, pause and reflect on what God sacrificed for you. Trust Him and give Him the best that you have because you love Him with all your heart."
You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 17:1
"God's love moved Him to sacrifice that which meant the most to Him -- His only Son. Our response, if we truly understand His love for us, is the desire to give back to God that which means the most to us.
The Old Testament reveals that God set forth high standards for the sacrifices He required of His people. A worthy sacrifice had to cost the people something. As their hearts shifted away from God, the people began struggling to give God costly offerings. They would bring blind, lame, and sick animals, assuming God could not tell the difference (Mal. 1:8). God saw what they were doing and declared their offerings to be in vain (Mal. 1:10). Throughout the Old Testament period, God was setting the stage for the ultimate, perfect, and sinless sacrifice of His Son for the sins of humanity.
The offerings we give back to God reveal our hearts' condition. A heart that overflows with gratitude for God's love will respond in selfless devotion. If we are unwilling to sacrifice our time, our possessions, our money, or our energy, we indicate that we do not love God as He desires. God takes delight in the person who gives to Him cheerfully out of a loving heart, a person who understands that God is the source of everything he has and who knows that God will more than compensate for whatever is sacrificed for Him (2 Cor. 9:8).
If you struggle in giving your best to God ie...your time, heart, money, pause and reflect on what God sacrificed for you. Trust Him and give Him the best that you have because you love Him with all your heart."
Sunday, August 29, 2010
How Can We Keep From Singing?
by Our Daily Bread - Aug 29, 2010 by David C. McCasland
Read: Psalm 146
While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. —Psalm 146:2
Robert Lowry felt that preaching would be his greatest contribution in life. However, this 19th-century pastor is best remembered for his gospel music and hymns. Lowry composed words or music for more than 500 songs, including “Christ Arose,” “I Need Thee Every Hour,” and “Shall We Gather at the River?”
In 1860, as the United States teetered on the brink of civil war, Lowry wrote these enduring words that focus not on threatening circumstances but on the unchanging Christ:
What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness gather round!
Songs in the night He giveth:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of Heav’n and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
Lowry’s confidence in God during difficult times echoes the psalmist’s words: “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. . . . Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Ps. 146:3-5).
Whether we react to life with faith or fear depends on our focus. Knowing that “the Lord shall reign forever” (v.10), how can we keep from singing?
If you keep in tune with Christ, you can sing even in the dark.
In 1860, as the United States teetered on the brink of civil war, Lowry wrote these enduring words that focus not on threatening circumstances but on the unchanging Christ:
What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness gather round!
Songs in the night He giveth:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of Heav’n and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
Lowry’s confidence in God during difficult times echoes the psalmist’s words: “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. . . . Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Ps. 146:3-5).
Whether we react to life with faith or fear depends on our focus. Knowing that “the Lord shall reign forever” (v.10), how can we keep from singing?
If you keep in tune with Christ, you can sing even in the dark.
Wait On the Lord
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!" PSALM 27:14
Waiting is one of the hardest things to do. We want to be people of action. We feel better if we are doing something to address our need, but waiting forces us to rely on God. David learned what it meant to wait. He was chosen by God to be the next king of Israel, then spent years waiting for the day God's word would come to pass in his life. As he waited, a paranoid, egocentric king occupied the throne that had been promised to him. David spent his time hiding in caves and living among his enemies. As he waited he saw good friends murdered and his family and possessions taken. He saw Israel's enemies wreak havoc on his nation. Perhaps no one ever faced greater adversity while waiting upon God's promise than David did.
He certainly understood what it meant to become discouraged and fearful.
But David also enjoyed the reward for waiting upon the Lord. He became the greatest king in Israel's history, and, more importantly, through his trials he became a man after God's own heart. The psalms David wrote during his days as a fugitive have been cherished words of encouragement for millions of people through the ages. Through David's descendants came the Messiah. David's willingness to wait has blessed us all.
Times of waiting on the Lord can be some of the most precious moments in your life (John 11:1-6). If you are waiting on God for something, read Isaiah 40:31 and find encouragement as you wait for Him to fulfill His promises to you.
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!" PSALM 27:14
Waiting is one of the hardest things to do. We want to be people of action. We feel better if we are doing something to address our need, but waiting forces us to rely on God. David learned what it meant to wait. He was chosen by God to be the next king of Israel, then spent years waiting for the day God's word would come to pass in his life. As he waited, a paranoid, egocentric king occupied the throne that had been promised to him. David spent his time hiding in caves and living among his enemies. As he waited he saw good friends murdered and his family and possessions taken. He saw Israel's enemies wreak havoc on his nation. Perhaps no one ever faced greater adversity while waiting upon God's promise than David did.
He certainly understood what it meant to become discouraged and fearful.
But David also enjoyed the reward for waiting upon the Lord. He became the greatest king in Israel's history, and, more importantly, through his trials he became a man after God's own heart. The psalms David wrote during his days as a fugitive have been cherished words of encouragement for millions of people through the ages. Through David's descendants came the Messiah. David's willingness to wait has blessed us all.
Times of waiting on the Lord can be some of the most precious moments in your life (John 11:1-6). If you are waiting on God for something, read Isaiah 40:31 and find encouragement as you wait for Him to fulfill His promises to you.
Worry
By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page
2 Timothy 1:7—For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear is Satan’s trademark—and if you’re living in fear, you’re not dominated by the Prince of Peace!
Worry and stress also happen to be killers. Stress makes cowards out of aggressive men. Worry fills the face with wrinkles and apprehension. Worry paralyzes the mind. Stress robs the body of rest at night, and it sends you to work shaking and shattered, incapable of solving the crisis of the day.
Worry and stress are killing us. Worry is the mother of heart disease. Some doctors say that many forms of cancer are caused by the stressed-out society in which we live. Worry is the mother of high blood pressure and ulcers. It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you that’s the problem.
Worry is sin. Worry is faith in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear.
Worry is trust in the unpleasant. Worry is assurance that disaster is going to overtake you. Worry is belief in defeat and despair.
What do we worry about? We worry about thing we can’t change. We worry about being unfavorable compared with somebody else. The Bible says not to compare yourselves among yourselves. Wife, there will always be somebody prettier than you. Husband, there will always be somebody more handsome than you. There will always be a better salesman, a better lawyer, a better doctor, a better preacher. Be happy with where you are and who you are. God made you what you are—be glad with that.
Don’t worry about what you can’t change. Don’t worry about what you can change—just change it. If it’s bothering you, change it. But don’t worry, because it’s an absolute waste of time.
Jesus said, "Don’t worry." Worry has sent millions of people to their graves years before they were supposed to die…people who were supposed to have known the Prince of Peace. Jesus said not worry. "Take no thought for tomorrow. I have taken care of it. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Don’t worry."
2 Timothy 1:7—For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear is Satan’s trademark—and if you’re living in fear, you’re not dominated by the Prince of Peace!
Worry and stress also happen to be killers. Stress makes cowards out of aggressive men. Worry fills the face with wrinkles and apprehension. Worry paralyzes the mind. Stress robs the body of rest at night, and it sends you to work shaking and shattered, incapable of solving the crisis of the day.
Worry and stress are killing us. Worry is the mother of heart disease. Some doctors say that many forms of cancer are caused by the stressed-out society in which we live. Worry is the mother of high blood pressure and ulcers. It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you that’s the problem.
Worry is sin. Worry is faith in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear.
Worry is trust in the unpleasant. Worry is assurance that disaster is going to overtake you. Worry is belief in defeat and despair.
What do we worry about? We worry about thing we can’t change. We worry about being unfavorable compared with somebody else. The Bible says not to compare yourselves among yourselves. Wife, there will always be somebody prettier than you. Husband, there will always be somebody more handsome than you. There will always be a better salesman, a better lawyer, a better doctor, a better preacher. Be happy with where you are and who you are. God made you what you are—be glad with that.
Don’t worry about what you can’t change. Don’t worry about what you can change—just change it. If it’s bothering you, change it. But don’t worry, because it’s an absolute waste of time.
Jesus said, "Don’t worry." Worry has sent millions of people to their graves years before they were supposed to die…people who were supposed to have known the Prince of Peace. Jesus said not worry. "Take no thought for tomorrow. I have taken care of it. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Don’t worry."
Protection: Armor All - Part 5/5
Written By Sheila Schuller Coleman
2117 08/29/10
I hope that you have seen the majority, if not all, of my messages on "Living the Lord's Prayer." I've been hearing from some of you that you're actually starting to pray the Lord's Prayer as a prayer template every single day. I've done this the last couple of years, and it has absolutely, positively transformed my life. When you pray the Lord's Prayer day by day, you begin to notice, how much more consistently you're following the key principles that God and Jesus gave us to help us live full and fruitful lives.
As we go into the last message of this series, let's review...
The Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." We PRAISE our heavenly Father Who knows what's best for us. Our Heavenly Father knows best.
And then we move on to "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We move from praise to permission, giving God authority in those tug-of-wars of wills that we have, not because we have to, but because we trust Him. We know, as our heavenly Father knows best, we can give Him permission to have His way in our lives.
And then we're ready to ask Him to "Give us this day our daily bread." It's petition. We can ask God correctly because now we are in the right frame of mind to ask Him. Because we've already praised Him and we've been reminded that He's a big and powerful God who can do anything, we don't just ask for moldy, stale, day-old bread. We ask for fresh-from-the-oven artisan daily bread. That's what we do. We pray with boldness because we've been praising God.
And then we move from praise to permission to petition to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Last week I brought my restoration bucket. We pardon because we need to ask God to forgive us and to wipe away those stains that are in our hearts and in our lives. And as we have been forgiven, then we also give forgiveness to others. You'll remember that a lot of the fractures in relationships are due to broken hearts. And God decided to mend broken hearts with this - a hammer and a nail. "For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son" so we could be pardoned and we can, in turn, forgive others. That is how we mend broken hearts and mend broken relationships through asking God to forgive us and then giving others forgiveness.
And now we come to the fifth and final part of the Lord's Prayer. That is protection. Wow, anybody here need victory over things in your life? Temptations? Anybody ever have temptations in your life?
My husband Jim and I, in these lean economic times, have been on a very strict family budget. And he said, "Sheila, no more spending money on clothes or shoes."
I said, "Okay Jim, I'm here with you. I'm a team partner. I will resist the temptation." But the other day I had to go pick up a baby gift and, in order to get into the mall, I had to go through Nordstrom. Just had to, it's the easiest way into the mall. And, of course, it was when Nordstrom holds their big summer sale.
As I walked through the store, I happened to run past this really cute dress that was my size and on sale! I thought, oh, it won't hurt just to try it on. It's really hard to find a dress that fits just right, especially one that's affordable, right? All you ladies know exactly what I mean. You can't pass up an item because it won't be there next time; it'll be gone. I thought I could try it on, that won't hurt. So I went in the dressing room, I tried it on, and I thought it fit perfectly. I couldn't walk away from it. The temptation was too strong, so I bought it, took it home, and then guilt began to eat at me. I thought, oh, Jim's going to see that credit card bill and he's going to say, "Sheila, I thought we had an agreement."
I wondered how I was going to break the news to my husband. When he came home that night, we had a great dinner, a nice dessert, and I said, "Jim, I blew it today. There was a dress in my size, it was on sale, and when I went into the dressing room and tried it on, it fit perfectly. I need it for the summer wedding that we'll be attending. I just couldn't resist the temptation."
And Jim said, "Sheila, why didn't you say to yourself, ‘Get thee behind me Satan?''"
I said, "I did and he said it looks good from back here, too."
Okay, that's not a true story and we all have temptations. Do you want victory over a temptation in your life? Do you? I will tell you that when you decide to say yes to that God-given dream, you will face attack. The evil one, do you think he wants God-given dreams to succeed through you? No. So, he'll come after you and he will attack you with all kinds of little ploys. When we ask God, in the Lord's Prayer to "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one," the good news is, we can have protection.
When I started praying the Lord's Prayer a couple years ago, when I got to this "protection" part, I also started to pray Ephesians 6, which is praying for the armor of God. I would pray each piece of the armor over me because I wanted to make sure that as I was tackling the God-sized dreams that He was asking me to give leadership to. I was facing attack, I was facing discouragement, I was facing many, many things that wanted to take me down and take me out. I knew I had to walk out of the house completely covered with God's armor. It reminded me of the "Armor All" that my husband uses to protect our dashboards from sun damage.
In this season of my life, especially, I knew I couldn't go out without one single piece of armor mentioned in Ephesians. From top to bottom, from head to toe, I make sure that I'm completely protected before I leave the house each morning.
It begins in the mind, so we all need a helmet of salvation. One day when I prayed and I said, "Lord, put that helmet of salvation on me," it dawned on me that, because I have a helmet of salvation and because I have been saved by God, He sees me as pure of mind. He has purified my thoughts. As my mind is purified from negativity, from doubt, from impure thoughts, Satan is less able to attack me. Do you see why that's important to have the helmet of salvation? It's so tempting to think "I can't do this" as opposed to "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It begins in the mind. As we think, so are we. Cognitive psychologists talk about how thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to behavior. So, we protect our minds with a helmet of salvation. Our thoughts become God's thoughts when we do this.
Now, many of you have not had a chance to meet my wonderful husband. You hear me talk about him all the time. And I want to introduce to you, right now, my husband, Jim Coleman. Come on up Jim.
Jim's going to help demonstrate the Armor-of-God concept. First, I've asked him to put on a helmet of salvation. So, Jim, put it on. Now, negative thoughts will bombard him. Negative thoughts like "You can't do it; you're not good enough." When you're protected, those thoughts are deflected. The attacks are deflected. The helmet of salvation protects your mind.
But now, Jim's completely vulnerable right here, in the heart of the matter. Would he go into battle without a breastplate of righteousness? The scriptures say no. Because we have a breastplate of righteousness, our hearts are pure, our motives are right. We're doing things for the right reasons. We're doing things to please God. We're doing things so He gets the glory. We're doing things to help others. We're not getting up in the morning to do things for ourselves, and we're not having pity parties through the day. Instead, we're doing things for others. When the heart is protected, our motives are pure. Satan cannot attack us. And that's why it's so important to put on the breastplate of righteousness. So, Jim, please put on a breastplate of righteousness for us.
Now, he's a little more protected. Now, he's got the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, and then we put on the belt of truth. And this is really an important one for me. I don't know about you, but I get attacked by lies, all those negative lies. "Sheila, you shouldn't be in that pulpit, you're a woman." "Sheila, you shouldn't be doing that, you don't have the degree." "Sheila, why are you there? You're just Dr. Schuller's daughter." Those are the most common lies I hear.
You hear lies, too. Because when you have a God-sized dream, Satan wants to take you down and he's hurling these attacks at you. Some of those lies come from within ourselves. Some of the lies come from people who love us dearly, but they don't want to see us embarrass ourselves. They're afraid that we'll fail and so they discourage us. They try to redirect us. Have any of you ever had that happen to you? Those are lies to take you away from God's beautiful, God-sized dream that He needs you to accomplish for Him today.
So we put on that belt of truth. When I put on that belt, I actually put God's truth in that belt. I don't just go out with a belt that's unarmed. Here's a truth I'm going to give to Jim to put in his belt of truth: "God is at work within you," Jim, "giving you the will and the power." That's a truth. Here's another truth: "God who began a good work in you will complete it." And another: "You are fearfully and wonderfully made," and don't you ever believe any other lie, because you're fearfully and wonderfully made.
Those are the truths of God that He gives us. So, take those truths and put them in your belt before you leave for work this week or before you go anywhere. You will hear lots of different voices. You'll hear negative voices, you'll hear encouraging voices, you'll hear God's voice, and you'll hear Satan's voice. Most of the time you won't recognize it as Satan's voice, but "choose you this day to whom you will listen." Listen to the truth and nothing but the truth.
We can also be attacked by our fears. So many fears, especially today. People are afraid and we have reason to be afraid. It is reasonable fear that we are fighting today - that fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of going bankrupt. So many fears. So, that's where the shield of faith comes in because faith protects us against our fears.
So, Jim, do you have a shield of faith with you today to protect you? Good. Now, if you don't have enough faith, you just ask for more faith because that shield deflects those attacks of fear. When I'm afraid, I'm not going to try something challenging or pursue my God-given dreams. So, don't leave home without that shield of faith. You'll need it when discouraging news or discouraging emails or letters come. God is your champion. He will not let you down.
Now, when we discuss the armor, the full armor as described in Ephesians, it's good to know that Paul wrote this in prison. He describes all the pieces of armor - most are defensive, in essence. However, he does give us one offensive piece of armor and that's the sword. And the sword is the word of God.
We see the "sword of the word" used so clearly when Jesus was tempted. Here He was, about to embark on His God-sized dream to save the world, to save you and me. He went out into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days and nights. Of course, Satan did not want to see Him succeed, so he went into the wilderness, meets up with Jesus, who hadn't had anything to eat or drink for forty days or nights. Satan tempts Jesus by reminding Him that He could turn a stone into bread and have something to eat. But Jesus pulls out the sword of the word and quotes scripture saying, "It is written: man shall not live by bread alone."
The tree key words are: "It is written." Jesus, the Son of God, deflected Satan's temptations with the word of God. He used a scripture from the Old Testament. He said, "It is written: man shall not live by bread alone."
Then Satan encouraged Jesus to look below Him. "Do you see? If you jump down from there I'll bet you could live if you're really, truly God. Are you really truly God? Jump. Prove it. Show us that you're really, truly God."
A nibble, a bait, and Jesus did not bite. He said, "It is written: don't put God to the test."
That didn't work, so Satan tried another ploy. He said, "See as far as the eye can see - there are kingdoms out there. I will give all of those kingdoms to you if you will worship me."
And Jesus said, "It is written: worship God, the Lord God, and only the Lord God." Three times Satan tried to tempt Jesus; three times Jesus resisted and fought the temptation with God's word. It is written, it is written, it is written.
Do you think that you or I can have the strength to withstand Satan without "it is written"? If Jesus needed it, how much more do you and I need it? So, I have my little it-is-written's. They're imaginary and I tuck them in my pocket before I leave every morning. When I'm praying the armor - I'm praying for God to put on that helmet of salvation, put on that breastplate of righteousness, and the belt of truth, and then the sword of His word - I say, "Okay, Lord, it is written," and I tuck it in my pocket. Then, when I'm driving along and I suddenly have this little niggling fear or that little niggling temptation, I instantly say out loud, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm not going to give into this temptation; it is written! ‘The Lord is at my right hand and I will not be shaken.'" That's one of my favorite it-is-written's that I keep handy at all times.
Last but not least, Satan, our great adversary, our great accuser, he is powerless. However, it's important to keep ourselves protected against him. And we need to be completely protected from head to toe. The scripture in Ephesians talks about putting on the shoes of the gospel of peace. Why? Because we need to make sure that our steps are protected, that we don't lose our way, that we don't stumble and fall flat on our faces, and that we make it to the end of our races. Shod your soul with God's word and you will finish the race. It says in 1st Corinthians, "Do you not know that in a race, all runners run? But only one gets the prize."
Make sure you have your shoes of the gospel of peace on your feet because they protect your way. Where is it that you're going? Why are you getting up in the morning? What is it you want to do? Our goal, Paul says here, our mission should you accept it, is a mission impossible if you try to accomplish it on your own strength. But it's a mission possible if you use God's help. And the mission is this: We're not to wear full body armor to be warriors, we're to be messengers of the gospel of peace. We're to be "repairers of the breach," to bring good news. That's why we have to make sure we also remember our shoes of the gospel of peace.
Jim's completely protected from head to toe and I want to thank him for helping us to demonstrate the full armor of God. Thank you, Jim. You're a very brave man.
God wants you to be a catcher like Jim was, a catcher of God-sized dreams. So, say yes to them today. Say yes to God-sized dreams. Then protect yourself from head to toe against discouragement, against negative thinking, against fear. It's here in the Bible. You can do it.
Stand with me and let us close by actually doing this together. We're going to all lift our hands in the air and we're going to lift our eyes to the heavens. "Our father Who art in heaven" (Our Father Who art in heaven), "hallowed be Thy name" (hallowed be Thy name). And place your hands in submission, hold them out, hands open, not clenched, not holding onto that rope, but holding our will open to God. "Thy kingdom come" (Thy kingdom come), "thy will be done" (Thy will be done) "on earth as it is in heaven" (on earth as it is in heaven). Put your hands together in petition. "Lord, give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven daily bread" (Give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven daily bread). And now in your mind, if you have a request, something you're hungry for, tell Him privately. Ask Him for it.
And then we're going to use the American Sign Language for Jesus - pointing to where the nails would be in the palms of our hands. "Forgive us our debts" (Forgive us our debts) "as we forgive our debtors" (as we forgive our debtors). And you don't have to repeat this after me, but in your heart say silently "Lord, forgive me for..." Ask Him to forgive you for whatever comes to mind right now. And Father, I forgive. Say it in your heart. I forgive... What names, what faces come to mind? People who have hurt you, people you need to forgive. Father, I forgive them. I forgive them now. Be free of it, don't hang on to that bitterness another moment. I forgive them, Lord.
Repeat after me: "Lead us not into temptation" (lead us not into temptation), "but deliver us from evil" (but deliver us from evil). And again, repeat after me: "Protect my mind and my thoughts, today, with the helmet of salvation" (protect my mind and my thoughts, today, with the helmet of salvation). "Protect my heart today with the breastplate of righteousness" (protect my heart today with the breastplate of righteousness). "Protect me from discouragement today with the belt of truth" (protect me from discouragement today with the belt of truth). "Protect me from fear today with a shield of faith" (protect me from fear today with a shield of faith). "Protect me from getting lost with the shoes of the gospel of peace" (protect me from getting lost with the shoes of the gospel of peace). "Amen" (amen).
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2117 08/29/10
I hope that you have seen the majority, if not all, of my messages on "Living the Lord's Prayer." I've been hearing from some of you that you're actually starting to pray the Lord's Prayer as a prayer template every single day. I've done this the last couple of years, and it has absolutely, positively transformed my life. When you pray the Lord's Prayer day by day, you begin to notice, how much more consistently you're following the key principles that God and Jesus gave us to help us live full and fruitful lives.
As we go into the last message of this series, let's review...
The Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." We PRAISE our heavenly Father Who knows what's best for us. Our Heavenly Father knows best.
And then we move on to "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We move from praise to permission, giving God authority in those tug-of-wars of wills that we have, not because we have to, but because we trust Him. We know, as our heavenly Father knows best, we can give Him permission to have His way in our lives.
And then we're ready to ask Him to "Give us this day our daily bread." It's petition. We can ask God correctly because now we are in the right frame of mind to ask Him. Because we've already praised Him and we've been reminded that He's a big and powerful God who can do anything, we don't just ask for moldy, stale, day-old bread. We ask for fresh-from-the-oven artisan daily bread. That's what we do. We pray with boldness because we've been praising God.
And then we move from praise to permission to petition to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Last week I brought my restoration bucket. We pardon because we need to ask God to forgive us and to wipe away those stains that are in our hearts and in our lives. And as we have been forgiven, then we also give forgiveness to others. You'll remember that a lot of the fractures in relationships are due to broken hearts. And God decided to mend broken hearts with this - a hammer and a nail. "For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son" so we could be pardoned and we can, in turn, forgive others. That is how we mend broken hearts and mend broken relationships through asking God to forgive us and then giving others forgiveness.
And now we come to the fifth and final part of the Lord's Prayer. That is protection. Wow, anybody here need victory over things in your life? Temptations? Anybody ever have temptations in your life?
My husband Jim and I, in these lean economic times, have been on a very strict family budget. And he said, "Sheila, no more spending money on clothes or shoes."
I said, "Okay Jim, I'm here with you. I'm a team partner. I will resist the temptation." But the other day I had to go pick up a baby gift and, in order to get into the mall, I had to go through Nordstrom. Just had to, it's the easiest way into the mall. And, of course, it was when Nordstrom holds their big summer sale.
As I walked through the store, I happened to run past this really cute dress that was my size and on sale! I thought, oh, it won't hurt just to try it on. It's really hard to find a dress that fits just right, especially one that's affordable, right? All you ladies know exactly what I mean. You can't pass up an item because it won't be there next time; it'll be gone. I thought I could try it on, that won't hurt. So I went in the dressing room, I tried it on, and I thought it fit perfectly. I couldn't walk away from it. The temptation was too strong, so I bought it, took it home, and then guilt began to eat at me. I thought, oh, Jim's going to see that credit card bill and he's going to say, "Sheila, I thought we had an agreement."
I wondered how I was going to break the news to my husband. When he came home that night, we had a great dinner, a nice dessert, and I said, "Jim, I blew it today. There was a dress in my size, it was on sale, and when I went into the dressing room and tried it on, it fit perfectly. I need it for the summer wedding that we'll be attending. I just couldn't resist the temptation."
And Jim said, "Sheila, why didn't you say to yourself, ‘Get thee behind me Satan?''"
I said, "I did and he said it looks good from back here, too."
Okay, that's not a true story and we all have temptations. Do you want victory over a temptation in your life? Do you? I will tell you that when you decide to say yes to that God-given dream, you will face attack. The evil one, do you think he wants God-given dreams to succeed through you? No. So, he'll come after you and he will attack you with all kinds of little ploys. When we ask God, in the Lord's Prayer to "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one," the good news is, we can have protection.
When I started praying the Lord's Prayer a couple years ago, when I got to this "protection" part, I also started to pray Ephesians 6, which is praying for the armor of God. I would pray each piece of the armor over me because I wanted to make sure that as I was tackling the God-sized dreams that He was asking me to give leadership to. I was facing attack, I was facing discouragement, I was facing many, many things that wanted to take me down and take me out. I knew I had to walk out of the house completely covered with God's armor. It reminded me of the "Armor All" that my husband uses to protect our dashboards from sun damage.
In this season of my life, especially, I knew I couldn't go out without one single piece of armor mentioned in Ephesians. From top to bottom, from head to toe, I make sure that I'm completely protected before I leave the house each morning.
It begins in the mind, so we all need a helmet of salvation. One day when I prayed and I said, "Lord, put that helmet of salvation on me," it dawned on me that, because I have a helmet of salvation and because I have been saved by God, He sees me as pure of mind. He has purified my thoughts. As my mind is purified from negativity, from doubt, from impure thoughts, Satan is less able to attack me. Do you see why that's important to have the helmet of salvation? It's so tempting to think "I can't do this" as opposed to "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It begins in the mind. As we think, so are we. Cognitive psychologists talk about how thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to behavior. So, we protect our minds with a helmet of salvation. Our thoughts become God's thoughts when we do this.
Now, many of you have not had a chance to meet my wonderful husband. You hear me talk about him all the time. And I want to introduce to you, right now, my husband, Jim Coleman. Come on up Jim.
Jim's going to help demonstrate the Armor-of-God concept. First, I've asked him to put on a helmet of salvation. So, Jim, put it on. Now, negative thoughts will bombard him. Negative thoughts like "You can't do it; you're not good enough." When you're protected, those thoughts are deflected. The attacks are deflected. The helmet of salvation protects your mind.
But now, Jim's completely vulnerable right here, in the heart of the matter. Would he go into battle without a breastplate of righteousness? The scriptures say no. Because we have a breastplate of righteousness, our hearts are pure, our motives are right. We're doing things for the right reasons. We're doing things to please God. We're doing things so He gets the glory. We're doing things to help others. We're not getting up in the morning to do things for ourselves, and we're not having pity parties through the day. Instead, we're doing things for others. When the heart is protected, our motives are pure. Satan cannot attack us. And that's why it's so important to put on the breastplate of righteousness. So, Jim, please put on a breastplate of righteousness for us.
Now, he's a little more protected. Now, he's got the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, and then we put on the belt of truth. And this is really an important one for me. I don't know about you, but I get attacked by lies, all those negative lies. "Sheila, you shouldn't be in that pulpit, you're a woman." "Sheila, you shouldn't be doing that, you don't have the degree." "Sheila, why are you there? You're just Dr. Schuller's daughter." Those are the most common lies I hear.
You hear lies, too. Because when you have a God-sized dream, Satan wants to take you down and he's hurling these attacks at you. Some of those lies come from within ourselves. Some of the lies come from people who love us dearly, but they don't want to see us embarrass ourselves. They're afraid that we'll fail and so they discourage us. They try to redirect us. Have any of you ever had that happen to you? Those are lies to take you away from God's beautiful, God-sized dream that He needs you to accomplish for Him today.
So we put on that belt of truth. When I put on that belt, I actually put God's truth in that belt. I don't just go out with a belt that's unarmed. Here's a truth I'm going to give to Jim to put in his belt of truth: "God is at work within you," Jim, "giving you the will and the power." That's a truth. Here's another truth: "God who began a good work in you will complete it." And another: "You are fearfully and wonderfully made," and don't you ever believe any other lie, because you're fearfully and wonderfully made.
Those are the truths of God that He gives us. So, take those truths and put them in your belt before you leave for work this week or before you go anywhere. You will hear lots of different voices. You'll hear negative voices, you'll hear encouraging voices, you'll hear God's voice, and you'll hear Satan's voice. Most of the time you won't recognize it as Satan's voice, but "choose you this day to whom you will listen." Listen to the truth and nothing but the truth.
We can also be attacked by our fears. So many fears, especially today. People are afraid and we have reason to be afraid. It is reasonable fear that we are fighting today - that fear of embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of going bankrupt. So many fears. So, that's where the shield of faith comes in because faith protects us against our fears.
So, Jim, do you have a shield of faith with you today to protect you? Good. Now, if you don't have enough faith, you just ask for more faith because that shield deflects those attacks of fear. When I'm afraid, I'm not going to try something challenging or pursue my God-given dreams. So, don't leave home without that shield of faith. You'll need it when discouraging news or discouraging emails or letters come. God is your champion. He will not let you down.
Now, when we discuss the armor, the full armor as described in Ephesians, it's good to know that Paul wrote this in prison. He describes all the pieces of armor - most are defensive, in essence. However, he does give us one offensive piece of armor and that's the sword. And the sword is the word of God.
We see the "sword of the word" used so clearly when Jesus was tempted. Here He was, about to embark on His God-sized dream to save the world, to save you and me. He went out into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days and nights. Of course, Satan did not want to see Him succeed, so he went into the wilderness, meets up with Jesus, who hadn't had anything to eat or drink for forty days or nights. Satan tempts Jesus by reminding Him that He could turn a stone into bread and have something to eat. But Jesus pulls out the sword of the word and quotes scripture saying, "It is written: man shall not live by bread alone."
The tree key words are: "It is written." Jesus, the Son of God, deflected Satan's temptations with the word of God. He used a scripture from the Old Testament. He said, "It is written: man shall not live by bread alone."
Then Satan encouraged Jesus to look below Him. "Do you see? If you jump down from there I'll bet you could live if you're really, truly God. Are you really truly God? Jump. Prove it. Show us that you're really, truly God."
A nibble, a bait, and Jesus did not bite. He said, "It is written: don't put God to the test."
That didn't work, so Satan tried another ploy. He said, "See as far as the eye can see - there are kingdoms out there. I will give all of those kingdoms to you if you will worship me."
And Jesus said, "It is written: worship God, the Lord God, and only the Lord God." Three times Satan tried to tempt Jesus; three times Jesus resisted and fought the temptation with God's word. It is written, it is written, it is written.
Do you think that you or I can have the strength to withstand Satan without "it is written"? If Jesus needed it, how much more do you and I need it? So, I have my little it-is-written's. They're imaginary and I tuck them in my pocket before I leave every morning. When I'm praying the armor - I'm praying for God to put on that helmet of salvation, put on that breastplate of righteousness, and the belt of truth, and then the sword of His word - I say, "Okay, Lord, it is written," and I tuck it in my pocket. Then, when I'm driving along and I suddenly have this little niggling fear or that little niggling temptation, I instantly say out loud, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm not going to give into this temptation; it is written! ‘The Lord is at my right hand and I will not be shaken.'" That's one of my favorite it-is-written's that I keep handy at all times.
Last but not least, Satan, our great adversary, our great accuser, he is powerless. However, it's important to keep ourselves protected against him. And we need to be completely protected from head to toe. The scripture in Ephesians talks about putting on the shoes of the gospel of peace. Why? Because we need to make sure that our steps are protected, that we don't lose our way, that we don't stumble and fall flat on our faces, and that we make it to the end of our races. Shod your soul with God's word and you will finish the race. It says in 1st Corinthians, "Do you not know that in a race, all runners run? But only one gets the prize."
Make sure you have your shoes of the gospel of peace on your feet because they protect your way. Where is it that you're going? Why are you getting up in the morning? What is it you want to do? Our goal, Paul says here, our mission should you accept it, is a mission impossible if you try to accomplish it on your own strength. But it's a mission possible if you use God's help. And the mission is this: We're not to wear full body armor to be warriors, we're to be messengers of the gospel of peace. We're to be "repairers of the breach," to bring good news. That's why we have to make sure we also remember our shoes of the gospel of peace.
Jim's completely protected from head to toe and I want to thank him for helping us to demonstrate the full armor of God. Thank you, Jim. You're a very brave man.
God wants you to be a catcher like Jim was, a catcher of God-sized dreams. So, say yes to them today. Say yes to God-sized dreams. Then protect yourself from head to toe against discouragement, against negative thinking, against fear. It's here in the Bible. You can do it.
Stand with me and let us close by actually doing this together. We're going to all lift our hands in the air and we're going to lift our eyes to the heavens. "Our father Who art in heaven" (Our Father Who art in heaven), "hallowed be Thy name" (hallowed be Thy name). And place your hands in submission, hold them out, hands open, not clenched, not holding onto that rope, but holding our will open to God. "Thy kingdom come" (Thy kingdom come), "thy will be done" (Thy will be done) "on earth as it is in heaven" (on earth as it is in heaven). Put your hands together in petition. "Lord, give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven daily bread" (Give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven daily bread). And now in your mind, if you have a request, something you're hungry for, tell Him privately. Ask Him for it.
And then we're going to use the American Sign Language for Jesus - pointing to where the nails would be in the palms of our hands. "Forgive us our debts" (Forgive us our debts) "as we forgive our debtors" (as we forgive our debtors). And you don't have to repeat this after me, but in your heart say silently "Lord, forgive me for..." Ask Him to forgive you for whatever comes to mind right now. And Father, I forgive. Say it in your heart. I forgive... What names, what faces come to mind? People who have hurt you, people you need to forgive. Father, I forgive them. I forgive them now. Be free of it, don't hang on to that bitterness another moment. I forgive them, Lord.
Repeat after me: "Lead us not into temptation" (lead us not into temptation), "but deliver us from evil" (but deliver us from evil). And again, repeat after me: "Protect my mind and my thoughts, today, with the helmet of salvation" (protect my mind and my thoughts, today, with the helmet of salvation). "Protect my heart today with the breastplate of righteousness" (protect my heart today with the breastplate of righteousness). "Protect me from discouragement today with the belt of truth" (protect me from discouragement today with the belt of truth). "Protect me from fear today with a shield of faith" (protect me from fear today with a shield of faith). "Protect me from getting lost with the shoes of the gospel of peace" (protect me from getting lost with the shoes of the gospel of peace). "Amen" (amen).
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Purpose of Prayer
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive . . .” ( John 16:24 ). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” ( Matthew 18:3 ). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive . . .” ( John 16:24 ). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” ( Matthew 18:3 ). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Living Your Theology
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:20 ). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:20 ). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Are You Ever Troubled?
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” ( John 14:27 ).
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” ( John 14:27 ).
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sacrifice and Friendship
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The Spiritual Search
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).
Monday, August 23, 2010
Prayer— Battle in "The Secret Place"
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pardon: For Giving - Part 4/5
Written By Sheila Schuller Coleman
Today we are continuing in our series on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living The Lord's Prayer." You've been hearing the word sustainability, that new "go green" word that represents anything from fabric to architecture to foods to anything that can be renewed and continue to grow. Anything that is sustainable.
Don't we want that for our spirits, as well? To be spiritually sustained? And the secret to that is found in the Lord's Prayer. There are principles in the Lord's Prayer that will give you spiritual sustainability. And so today, we'll cover number four in a series of five. However, before we do, let's review the first three principles.
We begin the Lord's Prayer with praise: "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." Praise. Beginning your day with praise and continuing throughout the day by living and praying with a God who has a can-do-anything attitude. He's a loving Father, a powerful God, a protective Father, a heavenly Father.
The order of these principles align with the order of the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave to us when His disciples asked Him, "How, then, should we pray?" He only gave one answer to that question and it's the Lord's Prayer. And the order is very important. Number one, begin with praise. Why? We thank God, we worship Him, we focus on Him, and we remind ourselves it's to Him that we pray. And that's important because we tend to forget about how big God really is. So begin with praise.
Then move on to permission, giving God permission. He doesn't need our permission, but we give it to Him anyway. You may remember that I used a rope to illustrate our daily tug of war with my will and my will. Do I want to go to the gym or will I stay in bed? Will I eat healthy food or will I eat junk food? Me and me. My will versus my will.
And then there's also my will versus Thy will, meaning I have a tug of war between my will and my spouse's will, my will and my child's will, my will and my friend's will. Those tug of wars, those clashes of wills.
Ultimately we talk about Thy will be done, my will versus God's will. I can give God permission. I can say to Him, "Thy will be done with my life. You do with me as you want to do," because, remember, I've just praised Him. I've just focused on who He is and I can trust Him with my entire life. And so we pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," in my life "on earth as it is in heaven." And we say, "What are You up to today, Lord? I want to be a part of it."
So, praise, permission, and then we have petition. After we have praised Him, after we've given Him permission and submitted to Him, then we ask Him for what we need this day. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." It doesn't say give us this day our day old, moldy, stale bread, but give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven artisan bread. God says, "Ask and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7a).
So praise, permission, petition. Today we get to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
I've brought with me today, to help illustrate this Sunday's message, a restoration bucket, that's what I call it. I'll put it right here. And I have lots of little illustrations in there on how this verse works. There are two parts to this part of the Lord's Prayer. The first part is "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Again, the order is really important. The first part is asking for forgiveness, and the second part is giving forgiveness.
I'll have you know, I abhor house cleaning. Anybody else here feel the same? I just don't like doing it. And the worst part is cleaning the shower and the bathtub, don't you think? Scrubbing that soap scum. Nonetheless, I buckled down and cleaned my house from top to bottom. I even cleaned the grout in the tile. The house was beautiful; it was sparkling. There was no dust anywhere in the entire house. That was ten years ago. I haven't done it since. NOT! Really truly, if I only cleaned my house once in my lifetime, is that enough? No. I wish it were, but it's not. We have to do perpetual housecleaning, don't we?
That's why I love the fact that you can pray the Lord's Prayer every day. Every day you praise God. Every day you give Him permission. Every day you ask Him for what you need today. And every day, you do your housecleaning in your soul and in your relationship with God and with other people. And you do it by asking for forgiveness, which is pardon.
One of our biggest fears is the fear of failure. I truly believe that. You've heard Dad and others talk about the fear of failure to live up to our potential, to do the right thing, to pay what we owe other people, to pay our debts. How we fear that we might fail our families, friends, God. How many of you have ever dealt with the fear of failure? I have. I do. Yet every single one of us has already failed. Every one of us will fail. Probably we fail a little bit every single day. So you say, "Sheila, that isn't the positive message." Oh yes it is because, what if I were to give to you the antidote for failure? What if I gave you the antidote for the fear of failure? Would you love to have that, the antidote to failure, to the fear of failure? Well it's right here in the Lord's Prayer. The antidote to failure is forgiveness. Forgiveness. Jesus gives us the antidote.
You may think, Oh I failed. Oh, I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. And I want you to know, you're in good company if you feel that way. King David was known as one of the greatest kings, if not the greatest earthly king ever to walk this earth. Remember, he was the little shepherd boy who took on the big giant Goliath and he built this great big empire for God. David is revered; people talk about him as this wonderful, successful king. Oh, to be a David, right? Yet David failed. Let me tell you about David, how he failed.
As a king. He had multiple wives and he had multiple concubines, many beautiful women that were his. Back then, this was okay. Yet he saw this one woman, Bathsheba, and thought, wow, she's good looking. He desired her. But she was married to Uriah, another man, a soldier in David's army. When Uriah was away, David took her. He took her and she became pregnant. Now wouldn't this make headline news in the newspaper that the king took somebody else's wife while the husband was away and got her pregnant? Would you say that's a failure on David's part? Absolutely. He failed God, he failed his country, he failed Bathsheba, and he failed Uriah.
So what was his response? What do you think he did? He continued to fail because, when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he decided to cover up his failure. Now have any of you ever tried to cover up your failure? Or do you know anybody else who's tried to cover up a failure? Absolutely yes.
What David did was to send Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to the front lines where he knew he would be killed. In essence, he murdered Uriah to cover up his adultery. So here he is, this great King David, who has committed adultery and has covered it up with murder. A failure. And yet the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. When Nathan the prophet said David, "Look what you have done," David agreed he had failed. This is why David was a man after God's own heart.
David said, "Yes, I failed. Yes, I messed up. So, Father, forgive me." He then wrote a beautiful Psalm - Psalm 51. If you ever feel that you've failed, read David's Psalm because the antidote for failure is forgiveness. He wrote, "Have mercy on me, oh God. Have mercy on me. Because of Your unfailing love, because of Your compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow."
The next time you feel you've failed, or maybe today you feel like you've failed, I want you to know that it's just a sign that you're alive. It's a sign that you are a child of God and all you need to do, the antidote for failure and fear of failure, is ask for forgiveness. When we say, "God forgive me," He cleans our hearts. He's the great "Mr. Clean."
So, here in my restoration bucket is a Mr. Clean eraser. It's supposed to be able to erase any stain from your house. I also have in here a pink pearl eraser because, as a teacher, I love pink pearl erasers. If we make a mistake or if we have debt, wouldn't you love just to take this pink pearl eraser, erase that mistake or that debt once and for all, and get rid of it? I do hate debt, personal debt, especially. Most of us have debt of some sort or another, to either a credit card or a car loan or a mortgage loan or maybe a student loan for your child. This Bible verse says to forgive us our debts - to wipe us off, clean up that heart, make us whiter than snow. And God will do that. It's a gift. You don't have to pay for it, and when you accept it, there are no monthly payments. It's just a gift. No interest accrued. It's just a gift.
Well, you know that I don't like to clean my house. You may also like to know that I'm very dangerous when it comes to fixing anything that breaks in the house. So my husband doesn't like it when something breaks. He's always afraid that I'll try to fix it before he does, because this is my favorite tool. It's a table knife. It's always handy, and the handle works as a hammer. This part, at the blade, works like a screwdriver and it works as a wedge; you can pry out all kinds of things from the wall. Whenever anything breaks and I open the drawer, my husband says, "Put that table knife away!" So I put it away. Jim is Mr. Fix It. And he fixes things.
The first part of the Lord's Prayer is where we ask God to forgive us, to clean us up, to clean our hearts. The second part is where we ask God to help mend and fix our relationships with others. We take the forgiveness that we've been given from God, we accept that forgiveness that we've been given by God, and we pass it on to others who hurt us.
Jesus was asked, "How many times am I supposed to forgive my brother?" Most of you have heard this. "Am I supposed to forgive him seven times?"
Jesus said, "No, you're supposed to forgive him seventy times seven. That's how many times you're supposed to forgive him." And many, many more times. But beyond that, Jesus didn't stop there. In that passage, He shared this parable (Matthew 18:23-35, paraphrased):
There was a master who had a servant, and the servant owed his master ten thousand talents, a lot of money. And the master called the servant in and he said to him, "You owe me this money, and I want you to pay me. The servant didn't have the money. He couldn't pay his debt. The master said, "Where's the money?"
The servant said, "I don't have it."
The master said, "If you don't pay me back every penny, you, your wife, and your children will be my slaves. You will work off your debt. I don't care how long it takes you - probably the rest of your life. You will be my slaves for life. No longer will you be my servant where I pay you; you will be my slave."
The servant bowed before the master and he said, "Please, please, please have mercy on me. Forgive me my debt. Forgive me my debt."
The master showed him mercy and he forgave him completely. He said, "Because you've asked for mercy, I'm going to give you mercy. You may go. You're completely forgiven." So, off went the servant. Free.
He returned home and, when looking at his own financial records, realized that one of his sub servants, who worked for him, owed him a hundred denarii, not nearly as much as the ten thousand talents he had owed. So he called his sub servant in and he said, "You owe me money. I want it right now." In fact, it says in the Bible that he took his sub servant by the neck and choked him and said, "Give me my money. Pay me back immediately!"
The sub servant said, "I don't have it, I don't have the money."
So what do you think this servant - the one who had been graciously forgiven, his debt erased by his master - did? What kind of response do you think he had for this man who owed him money? He threw him in jail.
Well, Jesus let us know that God has forgiven us. He has completely forgiven us. He has erased our debt. We don't owe Him a thing. And all He asks for us in return is to take that forgiveness and give it to others who have hurt us and who will hurt us.
So we ask for forgiveness, and we give forgiveness. That is the antidote for all of our failures in life, and especially our failure in relationships. And, yes, there are many of us who have either strained or ruptured relationships, and the antidote for that is forgiveness.
I also have a trowel in my restoration bucket because it says in Hebrews 12, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to trouble and defile many." In other words, the "bitter root" is "bitterness." You may, like Dad likes to say, "Nurse and rehearse those hurts." You may think that you have every right - and you probably do - to feel mad, to feel angry, to feel resentful, and to be bitter. But be careful because that bitter root will just wrap its tentacles around your heart, and choke the love and the joy right out of you. Bitterness is a spiritual and an emotional cancer. And so we say, "God, take Your trowel and lovingly, carefully, tenderly dig out that bitter root from my heart."
I want you to think about how you would feel if the following was your experience. Imagine someone murdered your entire family. Imagine that someone broke into your home and, before your eyes, tortured your children, murdered your husband, and then raped you. Then later that murderer was captured, put in jail, and quickly released by the warden. He sets him free, gives him pardon, and says, "Go home." And, what if he moves in right next door to you? You see him walk his dog. You see him when you go to the grocery store. You see him when you wash your car. How would you feel? Wouldn't that be hard? Wouldn't that be excruciating? Forgiveness? Sheila, you say you want me to forgive him?
That is exactly what happened in Rwanda with the genocide in 1994. Nearly a million people were tortured and killed. Forty thousand murderers were thrown in jail, and then pardoned, and then released to live as neighbors beside those they had hurt. And do you know what the country of Rwanda is teaching the rest of the world? How to forgive. They're learning to forgive, and this is what the bishop of Rwanda has said: "A murderer able to accept forgiveness? Impossible! A victim of such atrocities able to give forgiveness? Impossible. But remember, men and women, that what is humanly impossible, with God all things are possible." He says there is no greater grace than the grace that is in Rwanda, and that grace comes from the cross of Jesus Christ.
I go through the day and, every now and then, somebody will say something that hurts my feelings. Any of you ever have that happen to you? And right away, you go ouch, oh, ah! And you harbor a little anger towards them. But I have trained myself to, most of the time, think of Jesus hanging on the cross with the people who put Him there standing down below Him. What did He do to deserve that? Did He deserve to have nails pounded into His hands? Pounded into His feet? Did He deserve that? No. And yet He looked down on these same people who did that to Him, and He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
And so when I get those little twinges and those little hurts, I think of that and I immediately say, "Father, I forgive them. They know not what they do."
So much of hurt is resentment. So many fractured relationships with our Heavenly Father and with others come from broken hearts. And so I want to ask you, what would you do? What would you use to mend a broken heart?
So, let's look in this restoration bucket - these are my husband's tools. So, would you use a hammer and a nail to mend a broken heart? Would you? Actually, that is exactly what God used to mend our broken hearts. He used a hammer and a nail. Hammers pounded nails into the hands of Jesus. A hammer pounded nails into the feet of Jesus because God wanted to mend your broken heart. He wants to mend your broken relationships. He loves you so much that He would send His Son to die so we can be mended, we can be pardoned, our debts can be paid when we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Please stand with me. Let us close in prayer. And we're going to do our hand motions as we've been doing so we remember. It helps us remember through the week. So we start with praise, right? Hands up, faces lifted up and, with Crystal Cathedral gusto, repeat after me: "Our Father, Who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." A little more gusto. "Hallowed be Thy name (Hallowed be Thy name)." Now we're going to do permission. Take your hands down and open them up. "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), Thy will be done (Thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven)." Now we put them together in petition and we ask Him, "Give us this day our daily bread (give us this day our daily bread)." And, Lord, we ask not for day-old, moldy, stale bread, but for daily bread.
And now we're going to do the pardon and this is American sign language for Jesus; you just put a nail in the hand. Repeat after me: "Forgive us our debts (forgive us our debts) as we forgive our debtors (as we forgive our debtors)." Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me (Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me). Forgive me for thinking I don't need You (Forgive me for thinking I don't need You). Forgive me for holding grudges (Forgive me for holding grudges). Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love (Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love). Amen (Amen).
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Today we are continuing in our series on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living The Lord's Prayer." You've been hearing the word sustainability, that new "go green" word that represents anything from fabric to architecture to foods to anything that can be renewed and continue to grow. Anything that is sustainable.
Don't we want that for our spirits, as well? To be spiritually sustained? And the secret to that is found in the Lord's Prayer. There are principles in the Lord's Prayer that will give you spiritual sustainability. And so today, we'll cover number four in a series of five. However, before we do, let's review the first three principles.
We begin the Lord's Prayer with praise: "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." Praise. Beginning your day with praise and continuing throughout the day by living and praying with a God who has a can-do-anything attitude. He's a loving Father, a powerful God, a protective Father, a heavenly Father.
The order of these principles align with the order of the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave to us when His disciples asked Him, "How, then, should we pray?" He only gave one answer to that question and it's the Lord's Prayer. And the order is very important. Number one, begin with praise. Why? We thank God, we worship Him, we focus on Him, and we remind ourselves it's to Him that we pray. And that's important because we tend to forget about how big God really is. So begin with praise.
Then move on to permission, giving God permission. He doesn't need our permission, but we give it to Him anyway. You may remember that I used a rope to illustrate our daily tug of war with my will and my will. Do I want to go to the gym or will I stay in bed? Will I eat healthy food or will I eat junk food? Me and me. My will versus my will.
And then there's also my will versus Thy will, meaning I have a tug of war between my will and my spouse's will, my will and my child's will, my will and my friend's will. Those tug of wars, those clashes of wills.
Ultimately we talk about Thy will be done, my will versus God's will. I can give God permission. I can say to Him, "Thy will be done with my life. You do with me as you want to do," because, remember, I've just praised Him. I've just focused on who He is and I can trust Him with my entire life. And so we pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," in my life "on earth as it is in heaven." And we say, "What are You up to today, Lord? I want to be a part of it."
So, praise, permission, and then we have petition. After we have praised Him, after we've given Him permission and submitted to Him, then we ask Him for what we need this day. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." It doesn't say give us this day our day old, moldy, stale bread, but give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven artisan bread. God says, "Ask and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7a).
So praise, permission, petition. Today we get to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
I've brought with me today, to help illustrate this Sunday's message, a restoration bucket, that's what I call it. I'll put it right here. And I have lots of little illustrations in there on how this verse works. There are two parts to this part of the Lord's Prayer. The first part is "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Again, the order is really important. The first part is asking for forgiveness, and the second part is giving forgiveness.
I'll have you know, I abhor house cleaning. Anybody else here feel the same? I just don't like doing it. And the worst part is cleaning the shower and the bathtub, don't you think? Scrubbing that soap scum. Nonetheless, I buckled down and cleaned my house from top to bottom. I even cleaned the grout in the tile. The house was beautiful; it was sparkling. There was no dust anywhere in the entire house. That was ten years ago. I haven't done it since. NOT! Really truly, if I only cleaned my house once in my lifetime, is that enough? No. I wish it were, but it's not. We have to do perpetual housecleaning, don't we?
That's why I love the fact that you can pray the Lord's Prayer every day. Every day you praise God. Every day you give Him permission. Every day you ask Him for what you need today. And every day, you do your housecleaning in your soul and in your relationship with God and with other people. And you do it by asking for forgiveness, which is pardon.
One of our biggest fears is the fear of failure. I truly believe that. You've heard Dad and others talk about the fear of failure to live up to our potential, to do the right thing, to pay what we owe other people, to pay our debts. How we fear that we might fail our families, friends, God. How many of you have ever dealt with the fear of failure? I have. I do. Yet every single one of us has already failed. Every one of us will fail. Probably we fail a little bit every single day. So you say, "Sheila, that isn't the positive message." Oh yes it is because, what if I were to give to you the antidote for failure? What if I gave you the antidote for the fear of failure? Would you love to have that, the antidote to failure, to the fear of failure? Well it's right here in the Lord's Prayer. The antidote to failure is forgiveness. Forgiveness. Jesus gives us the antidote.
You may think, Oh I failed. Oh, I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. And I want you to know, you're in good company if you feel that way. King David was known as one of the greatest kings, if not the greatest earthly king ever to walk this earth. Remember, he was the little shepherd boy who took on the big giant Goliath and he built this great big empire for God. David is revered; people talk about him as this wonderful, successful king. Oh, to be a David, right? Yet David failed. Let me tell you about David, how he failed.
As a king. He had multiple wives and he had multiple concubines, many beautiful women that were his. Back then, this was okay. Yet he saw this one woman, Bathsheba, and thought, wow, she's good looking. He desired her. But she was married to Uriah, another man, a soldier in David's army. When Uriah was away, David took her. He took her and she became pregnant. Now wouldn't this make headline news in the newspaper that the king took somebody else's wife while the husband was away and got her pregnant? Would you say that's a failure on David's part? Absolutely. He failed God, he failed his country, he failed Bathsheba, and he failed Uriah.
So what was his response? What do you think he did? He continued to fail because, when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he decided to cover up his failure. Now have any of you ever tried to cover up your failure? Or do you know anybody else who's tried to cover up a failure? Absolutely yes.
What David did was to send Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to the front lines where he knew he would be killed. In essence, he murdered Uriah to cover up his adultery. So here he is, this great King David, who has committed adultery and has covered it up with murder. A failure. And yet the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. When Nathan the prophet said David, "Look what you have done," David agreed he had failed. This is why David was a man after God's own heart.
David said, "Yes, I failed. Yes, I messed up. So, Father, forgive me." He then wrote a beautiful Psalm - Psalm 51. If you ever feel that you've failed, read David's Psalm because the antidote for failure is forgiveness. He wrote, "Have mercy on me, oh God. Have mercy on me. Because of Your unfailing love, because of Your compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow."
The next time you feel you've failed, or maybe today you feel like you've failed, I want you to know that it's just a sign that you're alive. It's a sign that you are a child of God and all you need to do, the antidote for failure and fear of failure, is ask for forgiveness. When we say, "God forgive me," He cleans our hearts. He's the great "Mr. Clean."
So, here in my restoration bucket is a Mr. Clean eraser. It's supposed to be able to erase any stain from your house. I also have in here a pink pearl eraser because, as a teacher, I love pink pearl erasers. If we make a mistake or if we have debt, wouldn't you love just to take this pink pearl eraser, erase that mistake or that debt once and for all, and get rid of it? I do hate debt, personal debt, especially. Most of us have debt of some sort or another, to either a credit card or a car loan or a mortgage loan or maybe a student loan for your child. This Bible verse says to forgive us our debts - to wipe us off, clean up that heart, make us whiter than snow. And God will do that. It's a gift. You don't have to pay for it, and when you accept it, there are no monthly payments. It's just a gift. No interest accrued. It's just a gift.
Well, you know that I don't like to clean my house. You may also like to know that I'm very dangerous when it comes to fixing anything that breaks in the house. So my husband doesn't like it when something breaks. He's always afraid that I'll try to fix it before he does, because this is my favorite tool. It's a table knife. It's always handy, and the handle works as a hammer. This part, at the blade, works like a screwdriver and it works as a wedge; you can pry out all kinds of things from the wall. Whenever anything breaks and I open the drawer, my husband says, "Put that table knife away!" So I put it away. Jim is Mr. Fix It. And he fixes things.
The first part of the Lord's Prayer is where we ask God to forgive us, to clean us up, to clean our hearts. The second part is where we ask God to help mend and fix our relationships with others. We take the forgiveness that we've been given from God, we accept that forgiveness that we've been given by God, and we pass it on to others who hurt us.
Jesus was asked, "How many times am I supposed to forgive my brother?" Most of you have heard this. "Am I supposed to forgive him seven times?"
Jesus said, "No, you're supposed to forgive him seventy times seven. That's how many times you're supposed to forgive him." And many, many more times. But beyond that, Jesus didn't stop there. In that passage, He shared this parable (Matthew 18:23-35, paraphrased):
There was a master who had a servant, and the servant owed his master ten thousand talents, a lot of money. And the master called the servant in and he said to him, "You owe me this money, and I want you to pay me. The servant didn't have the money. He couldn't pay his debt. The master said, "Where's the money?"
The servant said, "I don't have it."
The master said, "If you don't pay me back every penny, you, your wife, and your children will be my slaves. You will work off your debt. I don't care how long it takes you - probably the rest of your life. You will be my slaves for life. No longer will you be my servant where I pay you; you will be my slave."
The servant bowed before the master and he said, "Please, please, please have mercy on me. Forgive me my debt. Forgive me my debt."
The master showed him mercy and he forgave him completely. He said, "Because you've asked for mercy, I'm going to give you mercy. You may go. You're completely forgiven." So, off went the servant. Free.
He returned home and, when looking at his own financial records, realized that one of his sub servants, who worked for him, owed him a hundred denarii, not nearly as much as the ten thousand talents he had owed. So he called his sub servant in and he said, "You owe me money. I want it right now." In fact, it says in the Bible that he took his sub servant by the neck and choked him and said, "Give me my money. Pay me back immediately!"
The sub servant said, "I don't have it, I don't have the money."
So what do you think this servant - the one who had been graciously forgiven, his debt erased by his master - did? What kind of response do you think he had for this man who owed him money? He threw him in jail.
Well, Jesus let us know that God has forgiven us. He has completely forgiven us. He has erased our debt. We don't owe Him a thing. And all He asks for us in return is to take that forgiveness and give it to others who have hurt us and who will hurt us.
So we ask for forgiveness, and we give forgiveness. That is the antidote for all of our failures in life, and especially our failure in relationships. And, yes, there are many of us who have either strained or ruptured relationships, and the antidote for that is forgiveness.
I also have a trowel in my restoration bucket because it says in Hebrews 12, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to trouble and defile many." In other words, the "bitter root" is "bitterness." You may, like Dad likes to say, "Nurse and rehearse those hurts." You may think that you have every right - and you probably do - to feel mad, to feel angry, to feel resentful, and to be bitter. But be careful because that bitter root will just wrap its tentacles around your heart, and choke the love and the joy right out of you. Bitterness is a spiritual and an emotional cancer. And so we say, "God, take Your trowel and lovingly, carefully, tenderly dig out that bitter root from my heart."
I want you to think about how you would feel if the following was your experience. Imagine someone murdered your entire family. Imagine that someone broke into your home and, before your eyes, tortured your children, murdered your husband, and then raped you. Then later that murderer was captured, put in jail, and quickly released by the warden. He sets him free, gives him pardon, and says, "Go home." And, what if he moves in right next door to you? You see him walk his dog. You see him when you go to the grocery store. You see him when you wash your car. How would you feel? Wouldn't that be hard? Wouldn't that be excruciating? Forgiveness? Sheila, you say you want me to forgive him?
That is exactly what happened in Rwanda with the genocide in 1994. Nearly a million people were tortured and killed. Forty thousand murderers were thrown in jail, and then pardoned, and then released to live as neighbors beside those they had hurt. And do you know what the country of Rwanda is teaching the rest of the world? How to forgive. They're learning to forgive, and this is what the bishop of Rwanda has said: "A murderer able to accept forgiveness? Impossible! A victim of such atrocities able to give forgiveness? Impossible. But remember, men and women, that what is humanly impossible, with God all things are possible." He says there is no greater grace than the grace that is in Rwanda, and that grace comes from the cross of Jesus Christ.
I go through the day and, every now and then, somebody will say something that hurts my feelings. Any of you ever have that happen to you? And right away, you go ouch, oh, ah! And you harbor a little anger towards them. But I have trained myself to, most of the time, think of Jesus hanging on the cross with the people who put Him there standing down below Him. What did He do to deserve that? Did He deserve to have nails pounded into His hands? Pounded into His feet? Did He deserve that? No. And yet He looked down on these same people who did that to Him, and He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
And so when I get those little twinges and those little hurts, I think of that and I immediately say, "Father, I forgive them. They know not what they do."
So much of hurt is resentment. So many fractured relationships with our Heavenly Father and with others come from broken hearts. And so I want to ask you, what would you do? What would you use to mend a broken heart?
So, let's look in this restoration bucket - these are my husband's tools. So, would you use a hammer and a nail to mend a broken heart? Would you? Actually, that is exactly what God used to mend our broken hearts. He used a hammer and a nail. Hammers pounded nails into the hands of Jesus. A hammer pounded nails into the feet of Jesus because God wanted to mend your broken heart. He wants to mend your broken relationships. He loves you so much that He would send His Son to die so we can be mended, we can be pardoned, our debts can be paid when we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Please stand with me. Let us close in prayer. And we're going to do our hand motions as we've been doing so we remember. It helps us remember through the week. So we start with praise, right? Hands up, faces lifted up and, with Crystal Cathedral gusto, repeat after me: "Our Father, Who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." A little more gusto. "Hallowed be Thy name (Hallowed be Thy name)." Now we're going to do permission. Take your hands down and open them up. "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), Thy will be done (Thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven)." Now we put them together in petition and we ask Him, "Give us this day our daily bread (give us this day our daily bread)." And, Lord, we ask not for day-old, moldy, stale bread, but for daily bread.
And now we're going to do the pardon and this is American sign language for Jesus; you just put a nail in the hand. Repeat after me: "Forgive us our debts (forgive us our debts) as we forgive our debtors (as we forgive our debtors)." Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me (Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me). Forgive me for thinking I don't need You (Forgive me for thinking I don't need You). Forgive me for holding grudges (Forgive me for holding grudges). Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love (Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love). Amen (Amen).
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
Self-Awareness
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.
Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28
God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sorrow?
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”
“Sell all that you have . . .” ( Luke 18:22 ). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.
I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.
When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”
“Sell all that you have . . .” ( Luke 18:22 ). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.
I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Are You Discouraged or Devoted?
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
. . . Jesus . . . said to him, ’You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:22-23
Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.
Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.
Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.
. . . Jesus . . . said to him, ’You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich —Luke 18:22-23
Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.
Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.
Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Provision: Be Careful What You Ask For - Part 3/5
Written By Sheila Schuller Coleman
Today, I'm continuing with number three in a series of five messages on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living the Lord's Prayer." As I've mentioned before, about two years ago I started praying the Lord's Prayer as a template every single day. Soon I noticed that, not only was I praying the Lord's Prayer every day, I was living it. Those principles that Jesus gave us in the Lord's Prayer are principles that can sustain us and help us through the toughest times. You can have spiritual sustainability that will carry you through any storm, any challenge, any trial. And the principles are found in the Lord's Prayer.
It begins with praise. We begin our prayers, we begin our days, and we continue all day long praying, praising God with a God-can-do-anything attitude. Think of it. How will that change your life if all day long you're reminded that God can do anything, no matter what you face? That's why Jesus taught us to begin our prayers and to begin our days with "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." He is an awesome Father, a wonderful Father, a loving Father, an all-powerful Father.
And, as such, He is a Father who knows best. We can trust Him with everything. We can trust Him with our very lives. Therefore, we can submit to Him. We can tell Him, "Lord, You have Your way with me. 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,' in my life, 'on earth as it is in heaven.' You do what You want to do. I trust You because I've just praised You. I've just remembered what an amazing, awesome God You are."
Okay, now that we have submitted, now that we've praised Him, now that we've given Him permission to use our lives, now we can ask something of Him. He says, "Petition Me. I will give you provision. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Ask. The Bible says, 'Ask.' Over and over again, ask Me," says Your heavenly Father.
I want to add to that this little caveat: But be careful what you ask for.
A husband and wife and were celebrating their 30th anniversary, so they decided to go out and have a wonderful, romantic dinner, just the two of them. So, they went to a lovely, quiet restaurant. They had just sat down and were opening their menus when all of a sudden there was a bright light, as dazzling as the one Paul encountered in Damascus. The voice of God came from the heavens, saying, "My son and My daughter, I am so pleased with you. You've been faithful to each other for 30 years. In fact, ask Me for anything. I'll give it to you as an anniversary gift tonight!"
The woman thought for a moment and said, "I would like to take my husband on a trip around the world." Poof! God gave her tickets to take her husband on a round-the-world trip.
It was the husband's turn and he said quickly, "I would like a wife 30 years younger." Poof! The husband turned into a 90-year-old man.
Be careful what you ask for. Be very careful.
Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, His model prayer for us, "Give us this day our daily bread." It does not say, "Give us this day our daily candy." If you prayed, "Give us this day our daily candy," which many of you children (in the sanctuary) would love to do, would your parent - if they were a loving parent who cared about you - want you to ask them for candy every single day? No. God doesn't encourage us to say, "Give us this day our daily candy." He says, "Give us this day our daily bread."
I have four sons who have often asked me to make them sandwiches or snacks or meals. They still do, are you kidding? They come by all the time. They're grown men and they knock on the door, or they text me, and they ask, "What's for dinner?" And I give them food. I bake them pies. I make them cupcakes. I love to cook for them. If they ask me for a pie, if they ask me for a cake, if they ask me for bread, would I give them a stone? Heavens no. I love them.
God loves you even more. In the Bible, Jesus said, "…if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?" (Matthew 7:9). Your heavenly Father loves you so much. He wants to give you something wonderful and awesome. When you ask Him, He's not going to give you a stone. It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily candy." It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily stone." So what should you ask for? "Give us this day our daily bread."
It's very interesting that Jesus would use that one word - bread. Bread has been around since prehistoric times. It is one of the oldest prepared foods known on the face of the earth. There are so many different names for it - pan, pita, ciabatta, focaccia, tortilla, and more. Whatever name you use for it, ask God for your daily pita. Ask God for your daily ciabatta. Ask God for your daily focaccia. He doesn't want you to ask for moldy bread. He doesn't want you to ask for stale bread. He doesn't want you to ask for day-old bread. He wants you to ask for fresh-from-the-oven artisan daily bread. Not day-old bread, but daily bread.
Your heavenly Father is the King of kings and so what does that make you? It makes you a prince. It makes you a princess. Do you know any prince or princess who eats moldy, stale, day-old bread? God wants you to have daily bread, fresh bread, fresh from the oven. The best bread money can buy. He says, "Ask Me boldly. Ask Me because I want to give the best to you, My children." Only God can provide bread.
It takes seeds, it takes water, it takes soil, it takes the sunshine just to grow the grain, and only God provides those things. Nobody else can provide that and I think that's why God said to pray for daily bread. It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily candy." Don't pray, don't ask for that. Don't pray, "Give us this day our daily stone." Think beyond that. Think that you're worth the best! It says, "Give us this day our daily, beautiful, lovely, fresh bread," because your Father cares about you.
Bread is also money. It can also mean that. Bread is the staple of life. It's a provision of what we need to survive. And that's what Jesus meant. He didn't mean just the literal interpretation of bread; He meant whatever it is you need. "What do you need? I want to provide and I will provide. Ask Me and I will." Ask boldly, ask bravely, ask every day, ask Him.
However, it's not enough just to ask. After you've asked, you need to seek and knock. We need to do our part because it also doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily orange." Now, what do I mean by that? Well, you could sit underneath an orange tree and, if you sat there long enough, an orange might very well fall into your lap. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread needs all these different ingredients in order to make it. You can't just go out, find a bread tree, and pick it as you could an orange. For bread, you have to go and get some salt, which God provides, and you can get some olive oil, which God makes. You can't make olive oil and you can't make salt. You can get some flour from the grain, which God provides, and you can get a little sugar - or if you like sweet bread, a lot of sugar - and you have to do your part. Metaphorically speaking, you have to make the bread. You have to build the fire. You have to do your part. You ask, but then you seek and you knock. Seek and knock. "Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7b).
So, if you need financial aid, if you need provisions in order to live, if you need anything, ask God. Ask Him. Say, "Lord, where shall I look? On which door should I knock?" Then, when He gives you some kind of guidance, do it. Go looking for jobs online. Look in the job classifieds in the newspaper. Talk to people and ask them, "What's available? Who's hiring?" Then fill out those applications. Go out there. Do it. Do your part.
Ask, but also seek, knock, and then trust. As my dad says, "Trust for the crust." Once you've asked the Lord boldly, then Jesus says (in Matthew 6:25-27), "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" He will provide.
The Israelites were wandering around in the wilderness after they'd been delivered from Egypt. They'd been in slavery and, oh, how they hated that slavery. Who wouldn't? They were beaten, and then they were delivered. They made it safely across the Red Sea, but then there was nothing to eat in that wilderness - nothing at all to eat. In their hunger, many said to Moses, "I'd rather be back in Egypt being a slave. I'm starving, I'm hungry, this is terrible." So God saw His children needing food and what did He do? He gave them manna from heaven. They woke up in the morning and there was manna on the ground. We know it was like coriander seed. However, to eat it, they actually had to do some work. They couldn't just open their mouths and let the manna fall in. They actually had to gather it, make little patties out of it, and cook it over a fire.
God had warned them not to store the manna. "I'm not giving you yearly manna, I'm not giving you monthly manna, I'm not giving you weekly manna, I'm giving you daily manna, daily bread, every day. And don't store it." However, some of the Israelites thought, "I don't think I can trust God. He gave me manna today and I'm going to hoard it because tomorrow God might be sleeping. Tomorrow God might not be powerful enough. Tomorrow God might forget all about me. So I'm going to take that manna that He gave me today and I'm going to store up as much of it as I can."
God had told them not to do that. He wanted them to trust that He would do it every day. Do you know what happened to those people when they stored the manna? The next day it was full of maggots, spoiled. It only lasted for one day - that was it. So, they learned they could trust God. Did they ever wake up any day to no manna? Never. Not one single day.
Every day God provided daily bread for them and every day God will provide for you. Just because He's given you something today doesn't mean that He won't tomorrow, and He won't the next day, and He won't the day after that. God doesn't provide for you today and then forget about you. He doesn't provide for you tomorrow and then fall asleep. He doesn't provide for you the next day and then lose all His power. He provides for you today. He will provide for you tomorrow. He will provide for you every day of your life. He provides daily bread, daily provisions because He knows you need it. Your Father is the King of kings. Ask boldly. Ask bravely.
Be careful what you ask for. Ask for the best. Ask not for just any bread, not just daily bread, but daily bread of life. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who come to Me," any of you, "if you come to Me, you'll never, ever, ever go hungry again." He was talking about how, spiritually, you will never, every, ever go hungry again. "I will fill you with My life. I am the bread of life; your spiritual sustenance, your spiritual sustainability."
So, I ask you today, what are you hungry for?
Are you hungry for food? Some people are. That's why we have our Monday Meals here each week to feed the hungry.
Are you hungry for finances? Do you need financial help? God cares about that. He does. It's okay to ask Him. He wants you to ask Him for help.
Are you hungry for companionship? Do you know what companionship means? The Latin "com" means "with," and "pan" means "bread." With bread. Breaking bread with people. That's companionship. Pray for your daily companionship.
Are you hungry to make a difference, to make your life count? Ask God for the daily bread of life, for Jesus, every single day, to fill your life to overflowing so that, not only can you be filled yourself, you will have enough to share with others around you who truly are hungry in many ways. They may be spiritually hungry, emotionally hungry, socially hungry, and even physically hungry. You can be filled to overflowing and make a difference.
I'd like you all, now, to stand. We're going to close in prayer. We're going to continue where we left off last week. So, everybody stand if you're physically able to do so. We're going to take a posture of praise. You're going to take your hands and reach them up to the heavens because it's a way of saying, "We love You, Lord. We praise You, God." Lift your faces up to the heavens and keep them up there. Keep looking up to Him. Repeat after me with Crystal Cathedral gusto: "Our Father who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." Okay, let's do that again. That was without Crystal Cathedral gusto. Let's do it again with Crystal Cathedral gusto. "Our Father who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven), hallowed be Thy name (hallowed be Thy name). You are a great Father (You are a great Father). You are a wonderful Father (You are a wonderful Father). You are King of kings (You are King of kings). That means I'm a prince or a princess (That means I'm a prince or a princess). You will provide generously (You will provide generously)."
All right, we've begun with the praise. Now, take your hands and put them this way, open them palms out because this is an open posture of submission to God, giving Him permission in our lives. We've praised Him, so we can submit to Him. Again, repeat after me: "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), thy will be done (thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven). You are a loving Father (You are a loving Father). My heavenly Father knows best (My heavenly Father knows best), so I can trust You completely (so I can trust You completely). I trust You with my life (I trust You with my life). Work in me to do (Work in me to do) Your will and Your purpose (Your will and Your purpose)."
Okay, now that we've praised Him and we've given Him permission, now we're ready to ask for provision. We have been careful about what we ask for because we've given Him praise and we've given Him permission. Now, when we ask, we know we are asking the way He wants us to. So put your hands together; we're going to ask God together. Repeat after me: "Give me today my daily bread (Give me today my daily bread). I ask You, Lord, (I ask You, Lord,) to show me what to ask for today (to show me what to ask for today). Give me my heart's desires or take them away (Give me my heart's desires or take them away). I ask You today and every day (I ask You today and every day) to provide everything I need (to provide everything I need). I ask You today and every day (I ask You today and every day) to increase my hunger for You (to increase my hunger for You), my desire to serve You (my desire to serve You), and to live for You (and to live for You). Amen (Amen)."
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Today, I'm continuing with number three in a series of five messages on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living the Lord's Prayer." As I've mentioned before, about two years ago I started praying the Lord's Prayer as a template every single day. Soon I noticed that, not only was I praying the Lord's Prayer every day, I was living it. Those principles that Jesus gave us in the Lord's Prayer are principles that can sustain us and help us through the toughest times. You can have spiritual sustainability that will carry you through any storm, any challenge, any trial. And the principles are found in the Lord's Prayer.
It begins with praise. We begin our prayers, we begin our days, and we continue all day long praying, praising God with a God-can-do-anything attitude. Think of it. How will that change your life if all day long you're reminded that God can do anything, no matter what you face? That's why Jesus taught us to begin our prayers and to begin our days with "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." He is an awesome Father, a wonderful Father, a loving Father, an all-powerful Father.
And, as such, He is a Father who knows best. We can trust Him with everything. We can trust Him with our very lives. Therefore, we can submit to Him. We can tell Him, "Lord, You have Your way with me. 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,' in my life, 'on earth as it is in heaven.' You do what You want to do. I trust You because I've just praised You. I've just remembered what an amazing, awesome God You are."
Okay, now that we have submitted, now that we've praised Him, now that we've given Him permission to use our lives, now we can ask something of Him. He says, "Petition Me. I will give you provision. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Ask. The Bible says, 'Ask.' Over and over again, ask Me," says Your heavenly Father.
I want to add to that this little caveat: But be careful what you ask for.
A husband and wife and were celebrating their 30th anniversary, so they decided to go out and have a wonderful, romantic dinner, just the two of them. So, they went to a lovely, quiet restaurant. They had just sat down and were opening their menus when all of a sudden there was a bright light, as dazzling as the one Paul encountered in Damascus. The voice of God came from the heavens, saying, "My son and My daughter, I am so pleased with you. You've been faithful to each other for 30 years. In fact, ask Me for anything. I'll give it to you as an anniversary gift tonight!"
The woman thought for a moment and said, "I would like to take my husband on a trip around the world." Poof! God gave her tickets to take her husband on a round-the-world trip.
It was the husband's turn and he said quickly, "I would like a wife 30 years younger." Poof! The husband turned into a 90-year-old man.
Be careful what you ask for. Be very careful.
Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, His model prayer for us, "Give us this day our daily bread." It does not say, "Give us this day our daily candy." If you prayed, "Give us this day our daily candy," which many of you children (in the sanctuary) would love to do, would your parent - if they were a loving parent who cared about you - want you to ask them for candy every single day? No. God doesn't encourage us to say, "Give us this day our daily candy." He says, "Give us this day our daily bread."
I have four sons who have often asked me to make them sandwiches or snacks or meals. They still do, are you kidding? They come by all the time. They're grown men and they knock on the door, or they text me, and they ask, "What's for dinner?" And I give them food. I bake them pies. I make them cupcakes. I love to cook for them. If they ask me for a pie, if they ask me for a cake, if they ask me for bread, would I give them a stone? Heavens no. I love them.
God loves you even more. In the Bible, Jesus said, "…if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?" (Matthew 7:9). Your heavenly Father loves you so much. He wants to give you something wonderful and awesome. When you ask Him, He's not going to give you a stone. It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily candy." It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily stone." So what should you ask for? "Give us this day our daily bread."
It's very interesting that Jesus would use that one word - bread. Bread has been around since prehistoric times. It is one of the oldest prepared foods known on the face of the earth. There are so many different names for it - pan, pita, ciabatta, focaccia, tortilla, and more. Whatever name you use for it, ask God for your daily pita. Ask God for your daily ciabatta. Ask God for your daily focaccia. He doesn't want you to ask for moldy bread. He doesn't want you to ask for stale bread. He doesn't want you to ask for day-old bread. He wants you to ask for fresh-from-the-oven artisan daily bread. Not day-old bread, but daily bread.
Your heavenly Father is the King of kings and so what does that make you? It makes you a prince. It makes you a princess. Do you know any prince or princess who eats moldy, stale, day-old bread? God wants you to have daily bread, fresh bread, fresh from the oven. The best bread money can buy. He says, "Ask Me boldly. Ask Me because I want to give the best to you, My children." Only God can provide bread.
It takes seeds, it takes water, it takes soil, it takes the sunshine just to grow the grain, and only God provides those things. Nobody else can provide that and I think that's why God said to pray for daily bread. It doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily candy." Don't pray, don't ask for that. Don't pray, "Give us this day our daily stone." Think beyond that. Think that you're worth the best! It says, "Give us this day our daily, beautiful, lovely, fresh bread," because your Father cares about you.
Bread is also money. It can also mean that. Bread is the staple of life. It's a provision of what we need to survive. And that's what Jesus meant. He didn't mean just the literal interpretation of bread; He meant whatever it is you need. "What do you need? I want to provide and I will provide. Ask Me and I will." Ask boldly, ask bravely, ask every day, ask Him.
However, it's not enough just to ask. After you've asked, you need to seek and knock. We need to do our part because it also doesn't say, "Give us this day our daily orange." Now, what do I mean by that? Well, you could sit underneath an orange tree and, if you sat there long enough, an orange might very well fall into your lap. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread needs all these different ingredients in order to make it. You can't just go out, find a bread tree, and pick it as you could an orange. For bread, you have to go and get some salt, which God provides, and you can get some olive oil, which God makes. You can't make olive oil and you can't make salt. You can get some flour from the grain, which God provides, and you can get a little sugar - or if you like sweet bread, a lot of sugar - and you have to do your part. Metaphorically speaking, you have to make the bread. You have to build the fire. You have to do your part. You ask, but then you seek and you knock. Seek and knock. "Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7b).
So, if you need financial aid, if you need provisions in order to live, if you need anything, ask God. Ask Him. Say, "Lord, where shall I look? On which door should I knock?" Then, when He gives you some kind of guidance, do it. Go looking for jobs online. Look in the job classifieds in the newspaper. Talk to people and ask them, "What's available? Who's hiring?" Then fill out those applications. Go out there. Do it. Do your part.
Ask, but also seek, knock, and then trust. As my dad says, "Trust for the crust." Once you've asked the Lord boldly, then Jesus says (in Matthew 6:25-27), "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" He will provide.
The Israelites were wandering around in the wilderness after they'd been delivered from Egypt. They'd been in slavery and, oh, how they hated that slavery. Who wouldn't? They were beaten, and then they were delivered. They made it safely across the Red Sea, but then there was nothing to eat in that wilderness - nothing at all to eat. In their hunger, many said to Moses, "I'd rather be back in Egypt being a slave. I'm starving, I'm hungry, this is terrible." So God saw His children needing food and what did He do? He gave them manna from heaven. They woke up in the morning and there was manna on the ground. We know it was like coriander seed. However, to eat it, they actually had to do some work. They couldn't just open their mouths and let the manna fall in. They actually had to gather it, make little patties out of it, and cook it over a fire.
God had warned them not to store the manna. "I'm not giving you yearly manna, I'm not giving you monthly manna, I'm not giving you weekly manna, I'm giving you daily manna, daily bread, every day. And don't store it." However, some of the Israelites thought, "I don't think I can trust God. He gave me manna today and I'm going to hoard it because tomorrow God might be sleeping. Tomorrow God might not be powerful enough. Tomorrow God might forget all about me. So I'm going to take that manna that He gave me today and I'm going to store up as much of it as I can."
God had told them not to do that. He wanted them to trust that He would do it every day. Do you know what happened to those people when they stored the manna? The next day it was full of maggots, spoiled. It only lasted for one day - that was it. So, they learned they could trust God. Did they ever wake up any day to no manna? Never. Not one single day.
Every day God provided daily bread for them and every day God will provide for you. Just because He's given you something today doesn't mean that He won't tomorrow, and He won't the next day, and He won't the day after that. God doesn't provide for you today and then forget about you. He doesn't provide for you tomorrow and then fall asleep. He doesn't provide for you the next day and then lose all His power. He provides for you today. He will provide for you tomorrow. He will provide for you every day of your life. He provides daily bread, daily provisions because He knows you need it. Your Father is the King of kings. Ask boldly. Ask bravely.
Be careful what you ask for. Ask for the best. Ask not for just any bread, not just daily bread, but daily bread of life. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who come to Me," any of you, "if you come to Me, you'll never, ever, ever go hungry again." He was talking about how, spiritually, you will never, every, ever go hungry again. "I will fill you with My life. I am the bread of life; your spiritual sustenance, your spiritual sustainability."
So, I ask you today, what are you hungry for?
Are you hungry for food? Some people are. That's why we have our Monday Meals here each week to feed the hungry.
Are you hungry for finances? Do you need financial help? God cares about that. He does. It's okay to ask Him. He wants you to ask Him for help.
Are you hungry for companionship? Do you know what companionship means? The Latin "com" means "with," and "pan" means "bread." With bread. Breaking bread with people. That's companionship. Pray for your daily companionship.
Are you hungry to make a difference, to make your life count? Ask God for the daily bread of life, for Jesus, every single day, to fill your life to overflowing so that, not only can you be filled yourself, you will have enough to share with others around you who truly are hungry in many ways. They may be spiritually hungry, emotionally hungry, socially hungry, and even physically hungry. You can be filled to overflowing and make a difference.
I'd like you all, now, to stand. We're going to close in prayer. We're going to continue where we left off last week. So, everybody stand if you're physically able to do so. We're going to take a posture of praise. You're going to take your hands and reach them up to the heavens because it's a way of saying, "We love You, Lord. We praise You, God." Lift your faces up to the heavens and keep them up there. Keep looking up to Him. Repeat after me with Crystal Cathedral gusto: "Our Father who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." Okay, let's do that again. That was without Crystal Cathedral gusto. Let's do it again with Crystal Cathedral gusto. "Our Father who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven), hallowed be Thy name (hallowed be Thy name). You are a great Father (You are a great Father). You are a wonderful Father (You are a wonderful Father). You are King of kings (You are King of kings). That means I'm a prince or a princess (That means I'm a prince or a princess). You will provide generously (You will provide generously)."
All right, we've begun with the praise. Now, take your hands and put them this way, open them palms out because this is an open posture of submission to God, giving Him permission in our lives. We've praised Him, so we can submit to Him. Again, repeat after me: "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), thy will be done (thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven). You are a loving Father (You are a loving Father). My heavenly Father knows best (My heavenly Father knows best), so I can trust You completely (so I can trust You completely). I trust You with my life (I trust You with my life). Work in me to do (Work in me to do) Your will and Your purpose (Your will and Your purpose)."
Okay, now that we've praised Him and we've given Him permission, now we're ready to ask for provision. We have been careful about what we ask for because we've given Him praise and we've given Him permission. Now, when we ask, we know we are asking the way He wants us to. So put your hands together; we're going to ask God together. Repeat after me: "Give me today my daily bread (Give me today my daily bread). I ask You, Lord, (I ask You, Lord,) to show me what to ask for today (to show me what to ask for today). Give me my heart's desires or take them away (Give me my heart's desires or take them away). I ask You today and every day (I ask You today and every day) to provide everything I need (to provide everything I need). I ask You today and every day (I ask You today and every day) to increase my hunger for You (to increase my hunger for You), my desire to serve You (my desire to serve You), and to live for You (and to live for You). Amen (Amen)."
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Sunday, August 8, 2010
Permission - A Clashing of Wills - Part 2/5
Written By Sheila Schuller Coleman
Today, I am continuing my message series, "Spiritual Sustainability: Living the Lord's Prayer." Last week, we explored first phrase of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." That's "Praise." Praising God. Beginning your prayers and living your day by praying with God can do anything attitude. Focusing on whom it is we are praying to. And this whole idea of praise can transform your life.
The Lord's Prayer is the model prayer that Jesus taught us. Yet, we don't have to do it all the time - this is not something legalistic. But I have found that, when I start my day praying this way, it really, really has transformed my life.
So, I begin my day with praise, talking to my Heavenly Father, focusing on who that heavenly Father is. He is a Father who is all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. He can do anything. He is a Father who knows best. And so, now that we have praised God, we can give Him permission to do with our lives as He will. I'm not going to give permission to just anybody. But I will give permission, I will submit my life, a hundred percent of my life, to my heavenly Father and only my heavenly Father.
So you see what Jesus was trying to teach us - it was to begin with praise. "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." I thank You, God, for this. I praise You, God, for this. And that's how I begin my prayers and begin my day.
And then we continue, today, with the second part: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The kingdom of God, the kingdom that Jesus Christ came to establish, was a kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual kingdom that is in heaven, and Jesus came to show us that that same kingdom could be yours and mine.
We can also live in the kingdom of heaven here on earth. When we say to Him, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," it is possible to live a heavenly life on earth.
We all know when we go through life, and we go through our day, that it's not always heavenly. It's full of conflict. There are those negative emotions - the fears, jealousies, anger - and I would dare say that the majority of that conflict that we encounter is what I would call a clashing of wills. A clashing of wills. I'm going to demonstrate that concept because I believe that it'll help you remember. Make it a little sticky. So, this week when you're finding yourself irritable, negative, fearful, resentful, maybe you'll remember Sheila and her rope. And you'll say, "Oh! This is just a clashing of the wills."
So, I asked my husband for a rope. If I had brought it, it would have been a little string, but this big rope is what my husband got for me. These conflict-of-wills demonstrations aren't necessarily in order. It's just the way I'm presenting them - those between me and me, or between you and you. You don't think you have internal tug-of-wars? Oh, yes, we do.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #1 - ME AND ME...
This one is a common one for me. Here I am. I wake up in the morning. I'm going to go to the gym and work out, do the whole thing - cardio and the weight resistance. I'm so tired. I didn't sleep well. I think I'll just stay in bed. No, I'm going to go and work out because you know that this is good for you. Oh but I'm so tired. I'll go tomorrow. Anybody do anything similar to that kind of tug of war or is it just me?
Here's another one. Today I'm going to eat healthy. No junk, no sugar, no refined carbs. Just fresh fruit - berries, egg white omelets. And then I look at that delicious scone as I'm standing in line in Starbucks. It calls my name. Oh, I can smell the cinnamon wafting right over here. I can go on my diet tomorrow, can't I? Sheila, you made a vow this morning. But it tastes so good. It's just a hundred calories. Not its not, its two hundred calories. Oh my gosh! I'm doing this, right? Whew. Now, did I make much progress? Did you see me move anywhere? Accomplish anything great? No, I was stuck. Stuck. Got nowhere because of a clashing of wills with myself. And that's part of the problem with clashing of wills - we don't make progress and we're stuck.
Let me show you another one. Those were humorous but this next one is something that we all do all the time, too.
We want to do something great for God. But what if I fail, and people see me, and I'm nothing but a big fat failure? What about the people who won't be helped? Other people out there can do it better. God doesn't need me. The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. All those negative emotions can get in the way of us being and doing, making progress. We remain stuck through a clashing of wills first within ourselves - me and me or you and you.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #2 - ME AND YOU...
To illustrate this next conflict of wills, I need a volunteer. Anybody willing to be a volunteer and come on up and help me? Come on down and take a hold of this big fat rope? All right, thank you. The other clashing of wills is between me and thee, between me and other people in my life. So I'm just going to pretend that you're my employer, okay? And I'm going to go to her and I'm going to say, I want a raise! I want a raise. I can't make ends meet. Will you give me a raise? Why not? Because of the economy? Now, you're supposed to pull. Okay, you're pulling me, oh she's not going to give me my raise. But I can't afford to work for you anymore.
Okay, has anybody had any kind of tug of wars like this with their employer? Or maybe it's a family member, all right. Now I'm going to pretend you're one of my sons, all right? Okay, Nicholas, I need you to clean your room. Will you clean your room? Tomorrow? That's too late. You need to clean it today. I can't even get in there to vacuum. After you study?
Okay, any of you have any conflicts, tug of wars with your family members? How about with spouses? There are people that are in relationships today who are stuck because of a clashing of wills. And today, through the Lord's Prayer, you're going to learn how to get unstuck.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #3 - ME AND GOD...
The bottom line is we also have a tug of war going on with God. I've asked Jim Penner to come up and be God for me. Okay, I wake up this morning, and I have this wonderful dream. God, will you bless my dream? This is my will. Aren't You going to bless my dream? It's for You. I want to do this wonderful thing for You. Come on, come on, come on. Boy, He's not budging. Come on God, I've asked You for permission. I've asked You for permission. Come on. He's not going to move an inch. What am I doing wrong? Okay, just forget You then and I'm just going to do it my own way. And I'm just going to be...oh my goodness...I'm all tied up in knots now. That's not working either. My life is a mess. Come on God, come on. I've been praying to You, I've been asking for You and nothing, nothing. Wait a minute: Thy kingdom, Thy will be done. Oh Thy will, not my will. Is that right? Oh. So I jumped the gun instead of having it be my idea, I should have stopped and asked You what Your idea was? Oh. So instead of asking You for permission, I'm supposed to give You permission. Okay. But what if I give You permission, what if I say to You what do You want me to do? And, what if You tell me do something I don't want to do? Oh, that's right, I've already praised You, and I know You're a good Heavenly Father, and a Heavenly Father always knows what's best. Okay. I will say because I've praised You, and I know You love me, I will pray this prayer: Thy will be done. Thy will be done.
Thank you Jim, thank you.
Okay, all those clashes of wills within me and me, all those clashes of wills between me and thee, and all those clashes of wills between me and my heavenly Father. And if it starts with praising Him, knowing what a great God He is, how loving He is, I can trust Him with my life. So, after I've praised Him in the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." A wonderful, wonderful Lord. Hallowed be Your name. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will" not mine, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So, do you want to continue to live your life stuck in a clash of wills? In a tug of war where you pull people away from you or you push people away from you? Or are you willing to say, "Not my will but Thine be done" and live it every single moment of the day? As you begin to pray the Lord's Prayer every day, suddenly you notice and you're out of sorts - I'm not happy, I'm irritable, I'm fearful, I'm afraid to step out because I've taken my eyes off the Lord and I've put them on me. I've taken my eyes off of what God can do - how I can give to the world instead of what I can get from the world - that is what Thy will be done means.
So, okay, once we've submitted and we've given God our life, and we say okay Lord, You can have Your way with me, how will we know? God will not be looking at you, giving you nods, and shaking His head. That doesn't happen, but you do have God's word. You do have Jesus Christ. And God does reveal His will to you through His word and through His Son, Jesus Christ.
When I was a little girl, my dad taught me this prayer: "God, what are You up to today? I want to be a part of it. Amen." Do you want to say that prayer with me? Ready? "Good morning God, what are You up today? I want to be a part of it." Do you see? That's a really good prayer because it's not like I said, "Good morning, God, here's what I'm up to today. I want You to be a part of it." That's backwards. It's what are YOU up to? And so, just that simple, just that little prayer, asking Him. Then He will begin to reveal His will for you.
In Philippians 2:13, it says, "It is God at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purposes." That's God's will for you, to achieve His purposes in your life, moment by moment, day by day.
After I had graduated from college, I was working here at the Crystal Cathedral Ministries. I was single and beginning to be afraid I might just never be married. I was beginning to wonder if God would ever have somebody for me. So, I began to pray because I wanted to know what God's will was for me. One day I was up in the mountains, I was sitting on a rock, and I opened up my Bible to Psalm 37. When reading verse 4, it just jumped right out at me, and it said, "Commit your way to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Whew. How many of you would like to have the desires of your heart granted? Well, you can. It's right there in the Bible. It's a promise. But there's a real strong caveat to it, which is "Commit your way to the Lord." When we've said "Thy will be done, I commit my life to You Lord, a hundred percent," then what happens is your desires become God's desires, meaning God's desires become your desires, they become one. I no longer have Sheila desires; I have God-desires in my heart. But that only comes because I've committed my way to Him.
So, do you think God is in the process of not granting His own desires? No. He wants to grant His desires, so my prayer at that point in my life was, "Okay, Lord, I commit my life to You. And if You want me to get married someday, so be it. Right now, I feel the desire to be married someday, to be a wife and a mother. But if that is not Your desire, I pray You'll take the desire from me so that in all circumstances of life I can be content." And that was my prayer.
It was several years later that I met Jim Coleman. He came to work here at our ministry. And he was a party boy. He was not considered a committed Christian. He had not committed his way to the Lord. In fact, when he first started working here, somebody called my dad and said, "Dr. Schuller, you know that man Jim Coleman that you just hired? I want you to know he's not a Christian."
My dad said, "Well, then, I can't think of a better place for a non-Christian than church, can you?" Go dad, whew!
So, Jim worked here and we worked together, side by side. We were just friends. Two years later, Jim gave his life to Jesus Christ, and he changed, and he grew before my eyes.
For four years, we'd been friends - two years with Jim as a non-Christian and two years with Jim as a Christian. And then one day he said something to me and I thought, wow, he's really become a man of God. Just then, I felt my heart go bump-bump, bump-bump. I thought uh oh, four years of working side by side and no bump-bump, bump-bumps. What kind of future is there in this? So, I prayed about it and I said, "Lord, if this is of You and only of You, then You will make this happen. And I won't have to do it. I won't have to be involved and do any kind of manipulations."
So Jim and I did start to date and then he began to think, "Should I propose to Sheila. Is Sheila the one? Is she supposed to be my wife?" And Jim did this, but he didn't tell me, and I'm so glad he didn't because I'm not so sure how I would have reacted. I'm glad I didn't know. But he wanted to know God's will, if I was the one for him. So he said, "Okay, Lord, if Sheila's the one, on Friday at noon, my friend Toby will come walking into my office." He didn't have an appointment with him or anything like that or any work that he was doing with Toby. But he had said, noon, Friday, Toby will come walking into my office.
How would you feel if that was your boyfriend? A little nervous?
Well, at noon on Friday, the handle of the door turned, the door opened, and Toby walked into Jim's office. Jim jumped out of his chair. He said, "Toby do you know what this means? Do you know what this means? I am eternally grateful for Toby!"
You know, I wouldn't have had my husband, my love, and I wouldn't have had my four wonderful sons, if it weren't for Toby, but God made His will known. He revealed His will.
When your will is God's will, or when God's will is your will, then all will be well. Let me say that one more time. When your will is God's will, or when God's will is your will, than all will be well.
So stand with me now. We're going to practice doing the Lord's Prayer. The first two steps of it, all right? I want you all to stand unless you're physically not able to. And now I want you to take your hands and put them up in the air. I always wonder why people are afraid to do this in church. I don't get it. I know we all wear deodorant. I just don't get it. Okay? So put your hands up in the air. This is a posture of praise. It doesn't have to be, but it is one. Lift your eyes up to the heavens and repeat after me with the same gusto that you did earlier:
Our Father who art in heaven (our Father who art in heaven) hallowed be Your name (hallowed be Your name). Thank You Lord for this beautiful day (thank You Lord for this beautiful day). Thank You Lord for loving me (Thank You Lord for loving me). Thank You Lord for being such a mighty, powerful God (Thank You Lord for being such a mighty, powerful God). Thank You Lord for being a part of my life (Thank You Lord for being a part of my life).
Okay, now take those hands; stay standing, that's praise. Okay? And we begin by praising God; we begin by focusing on Him. He's a God who can do anything. He is a God; He's a father who knows best. So we can trust Him. So take your hands now, because this is a posture of openness. It's not gripping onto our life, but its opening it up to the Lord in a posture of submission and repeat after me. Thy Kingdom come (Thy kingdom come) Thy will be done (Thy will be done) on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven). Continue to repeat after me. Lord, (Lord) I give permission to do Your will in my life (I give permission to do Your will in my life). I commit my life, my will to You (I commit my life, my will to You). As a result, I know (as a result, I know) that the desires in my heart (that the desires in my heart) are Your desires (are Your desires). I trust that You are working within me (I trust that You are working within me) to do Your will (to do Your will) and Your purpose (and Your purpose). Amen (amen).
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Today, I am continuing my message series, "Spiritual Sustainability: Living the Lord's Prayer." Last week, we explored first phrase of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." That's "Praise." Praising God. Beginning your prayers and living your day by praying with God can do anything attitude. Focusing on whom it is we are praying to. And this whole idea of praise can transform your life.
The Lord's Prayer is the model prayer that Jesus taught us. Yet, we don't have to do it all the time - this is not something legalistic. But I have found that, when I start my day praying this way, it really, really has transformed my life.
So, I begin my day with praise, talking to my Heavenly Father, focusing on who that heavenly Father is. He is a Father who is all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. He can do anything. He is a Father who knows best. And so, now that we have praised God, we can give Him permission to do with our lives as He will. I'm not going to give permission to just anybody. But I will give permission, I will submit my life, a hundred percent of my life, to my heavenly Father and only my heavenly Father.
So you see what Jesus was trying to teach us - it was to begin with praise. "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." I thank You, God, for this. I praise You, God, for this. And that's how I begin my prayers and begin my day.
And then we continue, today, with the second part: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The kingdom of God, the kingdom that Jesus Christ came to establish, was a kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual kingdom that is in heaven, and Jesus came to show us that that same kingdom could be yours and mine.
We can also live in the kingdom of heaven here on earth. When we say to Him, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," it is possible to live a heavenly life on earth.
We all know when we go through life, and we go through our day, that it's not always heavenly. It's full of conflict. There are those negative emotions - the fears, jealousies, anger - and I would dare say that the majority of that conflict that we encounter is what I would call a clashing of wills. A clashing of wills. I'm going to demonstrate that concept because I believe that it'll help you remember. Make it a little sticky. So, this week when you're finding yourself irritable, negative, fearful, resentful, maybe you'll remember Sheila and her rope. And you'll say, "Oh! This is just a clashing of the wills."
So, I asked my husband for a rope. If I had brought it, it would have been a little string, but this big rope is what my husband got for me. These conflict-of-wills demonstrations aren't necessarily in order. It's just the way I'm presenting them - those between me and me, or between you and you. You don't think you have internal tug-of-wars? Oh, yes, we do.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #1 - ME AND ME...
This one is a common one for me. Here I am. I wake up in the morning. I'm going to go to the gym and work out, do the whole thing - cardio and the weight resistance. I'm so tired. I didn't sleep well. I think I'll just stay in bed. No, I'm going to go and work out because you know that this is good for you. Oh but I'm so tired. I'll go tomorrow. Anybody do anything similar to that kind of tug of war or is it just me?
Here's another one. Today I'm going to eat healthy. No junk, no sugar, no refined carbs. Just fresh fruit - berries, egg white omelets. And then I look at that delicious scone as I'm standing in line in Starbucks. It calls my name. Oh, I can smell the cinnamon wafting right over here. I can go on my diet tomorrow, can't I? Sheila, you made a vow this morning. But it tastes so good. It's just a hundred calories. Not its not, its two hundred calories. Oh my gosh! I'm doing this, right? Whew. Now, did I make much progress? Did you see me move anywhere? Accomplish anything great? No, I was stuck. Stuck. Got nowhere because of a clashing of wills with myself. And that's part of the problem with clashing of wills - we don't make progress and we're stuck.
Let me show you another one. Those were humorous but this next one is something that we all do all the time, too.
We want to do something great for God. But what if I fail, and people see me, and I'm nothing but a big fat failure? What about the people who won't be helped? Other people out there can do it better. God doesn't need me. The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. All those negative emotions can get in the way of us being and doing, making progress. We remain stuck through a clashing of wills first within ourselves - me and me or you and you.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #2 - ME AND YOU...
To illustrate this next conflict of wills, I need a volunteer. Anybody willing to be a volunteer and come on up and help me? Come on down and take a hold of this big fat rope? All right, thank you. The other clashing of wills is between me and thee, between me and other people in my life. So I'm just going to pretend that you're my employer, okay? And I'm going to go to her and I'm going to say, I want a raise! I want a raise. I can't make ends meet. Will you give me a raise? Why not? Because of the economy? Now, you're supposed to pull. Okay, you're pulling me, oh she's not going to give me my raise. But I can't afford to work for you anymore.
Okay, has anybody had any kind of tug of wars like this with their employer? Or maybe it's a family member, all right. Now I'm going to pretend you're one of my sons, all right? Okay, Nicholas, I need you to clean your room. Will you clean your room? Tomorrow? That's too late. You need to clean it today. I can't even get in there to vacuum. After you study?
Okay, any of you have any conflicts, tug of wars with your family members? How about with spouses? There are people that are in relationships today who are stuck because of a clashing of wills. And today, through the Lord's Prayer, you're going to learn how to get unstuck.
CONFLICT OF WILLS #3 - ME AND GOD...
The bottom line is we also have a tug of war going on with God. I've asked Jim Penner to come up and be God for me. Okay, I wake up this morning, and I have this wonderful dream. God, will you bless my dream? This is my will. Aren't You going to bless my dream? It's for You. I want to do this wonderful thing for You. Come on, come on, come on. Boy, He's not budging. Come on God, I've asked You for permission. I've asked You for permission. Come on. He's not going to move an inch. What am I doing wrong? Okay, just forget You then and I'm just going to do it my own way. And I'm just going to be...oh my goodness...I'm all tied up in knots now. That's not working either. My life is a mess. Come on God, come on. I've been praying to You, I've been asking for You and nothing, nothing. Wait a minute: Thy kingdom, Thy will be done. Oh Thy will, not my will. Is that right? Oh. So I jumped the gun instead of having it be my idea, I should have stopped and asked You what Your idea was? Oh. So instead of asking You for permission, I'm supposed to give You permission. Okay. But what if I give You permission, what if I say to You what do You want me to do? And, what if You tell me do something I don't want to do? Oh, that's right, I've already praised You, and I know You're a good Heavenly Father, and a Heavenly Father always knows what's best. Okay. I will say because I've praised You, and I know You love me, I will pray this prayer: Thy will be done. Thy will be done.
Thank you Jim, thank you.
Okay, all those clashes of wills within me and me, all those clashes of wills between me and thee, and all those clashes of wills between me and my heavenly Father. And if it starts with praising Him, knowing what a great God He is, how loving He is, I can trust Him with my life. So, after I've praised Him in the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." A wonderful, wonderful Lord. Hallowed be Your name. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will" not mine, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So, do you want to continue to live your life stuck in a clash of wills? In a tug of war where you pull people away from you or you push people away from you? Or are you willing to say, "Not my will but Thine be done" and live it every single moment of the day? As you begin to pray the Lord's Prayer every day, suddenly you notice and you're out of sorts - I'm not happy, I'm irritable, I'm fearful, I'm afraid to step out because I've taken my eyes off the Lord and I've put them on me. I've taken my eyes off of what God can do - how I can give to the world instead of what I can get from the world - that is what Thy will be done means.
So, okay, once we've submitted and we've given God our life, and we say okay Lord, You can have Your way with me, how will we know? God will not be looking at you, giving you nods, and shaking His head. That doesn't happen, but you do have God's word. You do have Jesus Christ. And God does reveal His will to you through His word and through His Son, Jesus Christ.
When I was a little girl, my dad taught me this prayer: "God, what are You up to today? I want to be a part of it. Amen." Do you want to say that prayer with me? Ready? "Good morning God, what are You up today? I want to be a part of it." Do you see? That's a really good prayer because it's not like I said, "Good morning, God, here's what I'm up to today. I want You to be a part of it." That's backwards. It's what are YOU up to? And so, just that simple, just that little prayer, asking Him. Then He will begin to reveal His will for you.
In Philippians 2:13, it says, "It is God at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purposes." That's God's will for you, to achieve His purposes in your life, moment by moment, day by day.
After I had graduated from college, I was working here at the Crystal Cathedral Ministries. I was single and beginning to be afraid I might just never be married. I was beginning to wonder if God would ever have somebody for me. So, I began to pray because I wanted to know what God's will was for me. One day I was up in the mountains, I was sitting on a rock, and I opened up my Bible to Psalm 37. When reading verse 4, it just jumped right out at me, and it said, "Commit your way to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Whew. How many of you would like to have the desires of your heart granted? Well, you can. It's right there in the Bible. It's a promise. But there's a real strong caveat to it, which is "Commit your way to the Lord." When we've said "Thy will be done, I commit my life to You Lord, a hundred percent," then what happens is your desires become God's desires, meaning God's desires become your desires, they become one. I no longer have Sheila desires; I have God-desires in my heart. But that only comes because I've committed my way to Him.
So, do you think God is in the process of not granting His own desires? No. He wants to grant His desires, so my prayer at that point in my life was, "Okay, Lord, I commit my life to You. And if You want me to get married someday, so be it. Right now, I feel the desire to be married someday, to be a wife and a mother. But if that is not Your desire, I pray You'll take the desire from me so that in all circumstances of life I can be content." And that was my prayer.
It was several years later that I met Jim Coleman. He came to work here at our ministry. And he was a party boy. He was not considered a committed Christian. He had not committed his way to the Lord. In fact, when he first started working here, somebody called my dad and said, "Dr. Schuller, you know that man Jim Coleman that you just hired? I want you to know he's not a Christian."
My dad said, "Well, then, I can't think of a better place for a non-Christian than church, can you?" Go dad, whew!
So, Jim worked here and we worked together, side by side. We were just friends. Two years later, Jim gave his life to Jesus Christ, and he changed, and he grew before my eyes.
For four years, we'd been friends - two years with Jim as a non-Christian and two years with Jim as a Christian. And then one day he said something to me and I thought, wow, he's really become a man of God. Just then, I felt my heart go bump-bump, bump-bump. I thought uh oh, four years of working side by side and no bump-bump, bump-bumps. What kind of future is there in this? So, I prayed about it and I said, "Lord, if this is of You and only of You, then You will make this happen. And I won't have to do it. I won't have to be involved and do any kind of manipulations."
So Jim and I did start to date and then he began to think, "Should I propose to Sheila. Is Sheila the one? Is she supposed to be my wife?" And Jim did this, but he didn't tell me, and I'm so glad he didn't because I'm not so sure how I would have reacted. I'm glad I didn't know. But he wanted to know God's will, if I was the one for him. So he said, "Okay, Lord, if Sheila's the one, on Friday at noon, my friend Toby will come walking into my office." He didn't have an appointment with him or anything like that or any work that he was doing with Toby. But he had said, noon, Friday, Toby will come walking into my office.
How would you feel if that was your boyfriend? A little nervous?
Well, at noon on Friday, the handle of the door turned, the door opened, and Toby walked into Jim's office. Jim jumped out of his chair. He said, "Toby do you know what this means? Do you know what this means? I am eternally grateful for Toby!"
You know, I wouldn't have had my husband, my love, and I wouldn't have had my four wonderful sons, if it weren't for Toby, but God made His will known. He revealed His will.
When your will is God's will, or when God's will is your will, then all will be well. Let me say that one more time. When your will is God's will, or when God's will is your will, than all will be well.
So stand with me now. We're going to practice doing the Lord's Prayer. The first two steps of it, all right? I want you all to stand unless you're physically not able to. And now I want you to take your hands and put them up in the air. I always wonder why people are afraid to do this in church. I don't get it. I know we all wear deodorant. I just don't get it. Okay? So put your hands up in the air. This is a posture of praise. It doesn't have to be, but it is one. Lift your eyes up to the heavens and repeat after me with the same gusto that you did earlier:
Our Father who art in heaven (our Father who art in heaven) hallowed be Your name (hallowed be Your name). Thank You Lord for this beautiful day (thank You Lord for this beautiful day). Thank You Lord for loving me (Thank You Lord for loving me). Thank You Lord for being such a mighty, powerful God (Thank You Lord for being such a mighty, powerful God). Thank You Lord for being a part of my life (Thank You Lord for being a part of my life).
Okay, now take those hands; stay standing, that's praise. Okay? And we begin by praising God; we begin by focusing on Him. He's a God who can do anything. He is a God; He's a father who knows best. So we can trust Him. So take your hands now, because this is a posture of openness. It's not gripping onto our life, but its opening it up to the Lord in a posture of submission and repeat after me. Thy Kingdom come (Thy kingdom come) Thy will be done (Thy will be done) on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven). Continue to repeat after me. Lord, (Lord) I give permission to do Your will in my life (I give permission to do Your will in my life). I commit my life, my will to You (I commit my life, my will to You). As a result, I know (as a result, I know) that the desires in my heart (that the desires in my heart) are Your desires (are Your desires). I trust that You are working within me (I trust that You are working within me) to do Your will (to do Your will) and Your purpose (and Your purpose). Amen (amen).
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