October 15th Verse

Matthew 22: 37-38 NIV

"Jesus replied; ' "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment.' "

Staying Focused on the Truth in Our Circumstances

I am going to borrow some concepts from my "Experiencing God" study today because I really felt like God was speaking to me!

I have been having some Job moments the last few weeks- tough circumstances in my life right now that have been leading me to question "Why is this happening God? Did I do something wrong? Did I miss You?" and I have been earnestly seeking some answers. Like Job said in JOB 3:23 "Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?"

Then today God once again spoke to me in my time with Him. If I have accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, doesn't He have the right to be the focus, initiator and director of my life? This means that whatever circumstances I am in, whether good or bad, I have to trust, obey and look to God for His perspective on what I am going through. My human nature is to question myself, God and the circumstances to find the fault. In my mind there must be something wrong if life isn't going along peacefully. But what He said is that I need to come to Him when I don't understand and am struggling and ask for His perspective instead of my own. Here are some progressive steps for facing confusing circumstances:
1) Don't begin blaming God
2) Don't abandon following what He told you to do
3) Go to Him
4) Ask for Him to reveal the TRUTH of the circumstances
5) Ask for His perspective on them
6) Wait for Him to answer and to move
By following this model, I can feel secure in my faith, circumstances and direction. I can trust God. Maybe His desire is to deepen my relationship with Him in a new way, reveal His awesome deliverance in such a huge way that He receives all the glory, or perhaps He is working through my life to minister to someone else because they need it. I must maintain seeking God's perspective so that I can stay God focused and others oriented. Then God can accomplish His work through and with me and I can grow in Him!
Now I am praying for God's perspective and am trying to wait on Him! Hang in there with me and remember...

Philippians 4: 11-13 Amplified

Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am. I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want. I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

October 1st Verse

Matthew 22:37-38 NIV

"Jesus replied: ' "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. " This is the first and greatest commandment. ' "

Obeying God

God is sequential and orderly in nature so when he communicates with us, he remains consistent with this nature. When he asks something of us, he leads us down a sequential path to get to the obedience he is looking for. Not because of something he wants but for our best in life.

God invites us to experience of and with Him --->
Through experience with Him, we grow in love for Him--->
We learn to believe Him because we have a foundation of love --->
Trust grows out of our belief in and of God --->
Trust and belief lead to obedience to God, whatever He asks we will do!

If you love Him, you will obey Him!

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

"What does the LORD you God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good."

August 15th verse

Psalm 20:7 NIV

Some trust in chariots and some trust in horses but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Some great quotes

I am working on "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby again. It is very thought provoking and I can already feel a crisis of belief coming along as God requires some major adjustments in me to follow after him. Here are just a few quotes from today's lesson that really got me thinking.

"The essence of sin is a shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness. The essence of salvation is denying self instead of affirming self."
Wow, what a deep truth. I could spend all day just mulling over this. We shifted our view from God to self with the fall and only through God's provision of redemption from ourselves can we be set free. I am a trap for my own soul! Self always leads to destruction!

"God never asks people to dream up something to do for Him. The pattern in scripture is that we submit ourselves to God. Then we wait until God shows us what He is about to do, or we watch to see what God is already doing around us and join Him."
Once again the focus is off of self and completely on God. When we look around us at the world and see what God is doing, we have a choice to join him or keep living in the disaster that is our self.
Potent thoughts for today.

September 1st Verse

Hebrews 6:10 NIV

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.