Time Flies

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." - Philippians 1:6

I heard on the radio the other day this caller that said they can't keep going and that they were struggling with everything in life. They were quickly responded to by the radio spokesmen who said "There is a reason you are still here. It is because you have not completed the task God has given you. He has set up your life in a way that, in his perfect timing, you will fulfill all of the tasks He has asked of you." God doesn't let you give up if you are taking time to serve and glorify Him. "...everything that has happened to me in the past has helped to spread the Good News today." - Philippians 1:12

Sometimes we wonder, "How am I ever going to meet all of these tasks and complete all of the goals God has asked of me if I am always busy with school, work, and the extra activities in our life?" I don't know about you but I like to be organized and know what the day has in store before the day starts. Time goes by so fast sometimes it’s hard to keep up of everywhere you have to be! I have my schedule written in my phone, on my internet homepage, in my planner, and on my dry erase board in my room. It's as if I think I might forget something. But when the day comes to an end, I think back and not once did I look at any of the calendars I had prepared. So I begin to think. What if I took away all of those planners and calendars and just began to live my life for God. Would I live it any differently? I believe the answer to this is yes!

When I am not focused on the minute by minute detail of the things I need to get done, I am more open to the people around me and the opportunity to share God's word. The everyday task that we go through in a "routine" day can easily be used to bless those around us and meet the tasks God has challenged us with. "Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ....Don't be intimidated in anyway by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together." – Philippians 1:27-30.

Challenge yourself to live outside the calendar you have prepared. Make those events meaningful and don’t let time pass you up. This will stretch your faith, grow you closer to God, and accomplish all that He has in store for you!

Hero

When something amazing happens and ends happily ever after, people refer to the person that took action as a hero. A hero has been defined as someone who steps up when they don’t have to. There are many cases in the bible that talk about heroes; heroes that step up to defend God and in result are protected by God through the whole process. Here are just a few heroes the Bible talks about.

Daniel – He was thrown into a pit with a man-eating lion, yet he was never eaten. The Lions growled at Daniel but God closed their mouth to protect Daniel for he stood up for his belief in God and knew God would bring him out safely. (Daniel 6)

David – He fought the giant Goliath and won by throwing a stone at the giant’s head and killing him! David threatened the giant by saying “You come against me with sword and spear, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head.” And that is exactly what he did! (1 Samuel 17)

Noah – He was the only good man left on earth. God asked him to take two of every kind of animal and put them on an ark he was to build. The earth was flooded. Noah followed the exact orders of God and kept the animals and his family safe until the water had left the earth. (Genesis 6)

Paul – He was thrown in jail just because he was Christian and he was proclaiming his love for God. But once again, God stepped in looked after him, and had him removed from jail. (Acts 16)

These are just a few of the heroes. In the place we live now, it’s hard to imagine being thrown in jail because you are a Christian, or attacking a giant, or saving the earth from a flood! These stories just blow our minds, because we know the kind of courage and faith it took to approach these tasks! These remarkable men stepped up to the call of God and in result are heroes! Jesus, higher than any other, stepped up and gave his life for us all! Now, that’s a true hero! My hope is that we can all become attentive to the opportunities around us to be heroes like these men. Stand firm in your faith and be courageous, God will pull you through it all!

Robbing God

Think back to the Christmas season. Imagine yourself with your family driving through residential areas at night to admire the Christmas decorations and lights people work so hard on. For the most part, you spend your time driving through the upper-class neighborhoods, where money is no problem for anyone living there. They obviously have so much money they are able to go all out on the lights to attract the most attention during the season. As we look at each house we can tell they have to be a blessed family to have all that they do. It’s just as God said “…But now we call the arrogant blessed...” ~ Malachi 3:15. But I bet if you were to enter through those front doors, of some of the homes, you would come to realize they do have everything they could ever want or need but for some crazy reason, they are still not happy. They don’t feel as blessed as they should be. And for majority of the time it’s because the joy they are looking for in the money they have is not the real joy that they need.

The Lord said “…Return to me, and I will return to you…” ~ Malachi 3:7. Give to God and he will give back to you. Sounds simple. God has provided you with exactly what you need at that given time. For majority of people He has given you a job, a house, a family, and fulfilled several of your wants and desires. For God to be so giving why would you not take the time to give back to show your thanks and appreciation for what He has done for you.

The Lord said “Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” ~ Malachi 3:10. After a statement like this who would not dare try! It’s a tenth of your earnings. God doesn’t need your money, but He does need your commitment to Him. He has provided you with the health and abilities to do what you do to earn money, so give back and thank Him every day for those qualities He has freely given you. “They will be mine in the day when I make up my treasured possessions. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not.” ~ Malachi 3:17-18. More than earning money, God has placed you in a job (whether you think it’s a “God Glorifying Job” or not) to witness to others and to serve those around you. So don’t rob God by taking the things He has given you. Take time to share what He has given you and glorify our glorious God! You will be blessed!

You Have Not, Because You Have Asked Not

Mark 11:24 ~ “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Prayer, what a powerful tool that most people push off to the side. It’s funny how it seems like only in special occasions is it okay to pray. Sure you may pray as a family before dinner; before Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas lunch; or when times are rough and people are hurting. And in all of those times there seems to be this generic prayer that everyone says “Dear God, Thank you for this day and this food you have provided. May it be nourishment to our body. Amen.” Sure that is a great prayer, but how often do we get alone with God and really thank Him, ask His forgiveness, and ask Him where He needs us that day so that we may glorify Him? For a lot of people, including me, it is not near as often as it should be. It’s as if we are walking through life and trying to make it our life and live it as we are wanting.

It says in Luke 11:9-10 ~ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” This all comes from a simple conversation and time spent with God. He will provide you and equip you with everything you could ever need if you just pray and ask. But the motives behind a prayer are very crucial.

James 4:2-3 ~ “You want something but you don’t get it….You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”. You may think that you can trick God into giving you what you want if you just ask in the right ways, but God knows exactly what you are going to do with the things He gives you before He gives them. You need to make yourself right with God, and seek the path He wants to lead you down. Pray for guidance and direction. Pray that He makes those paths clear for you and opens your eyes to what all He has in store just for you!

Prayer is like coming to the dinner table. You come in after a long day of work and are starving. You sit down and see all the food around you. You begin digging in and indulging all of the tasteful food placed in front of you. And by the end of the meal you have been refilled and are full of energy to keep going. God gives you that energy you need through prayer as he does with the food you consume. Psalm 34:8 ~ “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Taste and see what the Lord has in store for you. He is waiting for you to just ask. Don’t just sit back and let life roll past you.

We have all seen and read what He has done and what He will do for all of those who believe. When you are reading a book, you don’t read the first chapter and the last and call it good. The stuff in the middle is just as important and leads you to the end conclusion. The things between what He has already done and what He will do are just as important, especially during your lifetime. Make more time for God each day, ask Him for the things you need. I promise He will pour great blessings on you and set you on a new and fresh foundation!

Stress

Rick Warren once said “God gives you just enough time to do His Will. If you always feel behind, you’re trying to do more than he intended.”

Just like me, I’m sure you feel stressed at times. It can be that you are stressed with work, school, and/or family. It often feels like there are never enough hours in the day to get the things you need to get done, done. You can try hiding your stress when you are around others but that never resolves the problem, and in facts makes it worse. What usually happens is that when we feel like we are behind, we work harder and longer, which creates more stress and takes time away from the social part of life where you relax and enjoy time with family and friends. There is an equal balance of work vs. social time, and no part is greater than the other.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” ~ Isaiah 26:3-4. When you are set to a schedule with God being the forefront of each new day, the Lord will provide peace and calmness to your life. He will place you where you need to be in order to accomplish the goals He has placed for you. Like Rick said, “If you always feel behind, you’re trying to do more than he intended.” God will give you all the time you need to complete His task, so if you are feeling behind, it could be because you are trying to do more than He intended you to do.

Freshmen year of college I was asked to take a strengths test to see what my top five strengths were. Come to find out, my top strength is Achiever. An achiever is described as a constant need for achievement. It said “…you feel as if every day starts at zero and by the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied.” Satin is great at making you feel like a failure. He is great at telling you, “No, you haven’t completed this. Why don’t you do just this one fun thing before you start this next project, or why don’t you just take a rest and get back to it later? And so on and so on.” You begin taking on these task that fill up your day, and by the end of the day you are left farther back than when you started the day. You can try going to bed later, getting up earlier, and skipping lunch to catch up but ten times out of ten, that will never work until God is put first in your day.

The last part of the achiever definition said “You have a fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment.” This fire that is inside of you encouraging and pushing you is great to have, as long as you are using it to complete the task God has given you. I hope that you take some time to reflect on your everyday schedule. You can even write down everything you do each day and after a week look back and see where God was put in that schedule. See where you met the goals He had given you for that week. I promise, it will put things in perspective and maybe even be a huge eye opener. Then with a few changes the feelings of being behind and stressed will no longer exist! “But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” ~ Psalm 34:10

The Little Things

I have just started my new job at an accounting firm, so this week has been full of adjustments. I left a job which I knew every person and each person’s personality, as well as a building I could run through backwards and forwards with my eyes closed in the dark! It was a place I felt totally comfortable in and a place where I have reach great recognition! It may have only been a part-time job and only for two and a half short years, but it felt like a big portion of my life! I had worked hard to get where I was, so leaving was harder than I imagined. But when all good things come to an end, God always opens another door and a new direction in your life.

I am now in a new location across town with new people (most of which are a lot older than me), I don’t have as much interaction with customers, for the most part I am in one room or at a desk, and to top it off my pay went down nearly two dollars! Now, you are probably wondering why in the world I took this job and how in the world can I be excited about this! Well, this job is in the career field I am studying and God has blessed me with this opportunity I have been searching for the past few years, so I know great things are to come from it!

But I must back up real quick. When I heard about this job and found out the details, I have to admit, I wasn’t as excited as I had hoped for. I found out that this job was a lot of errand running (going to the bank, post office, getting the oil changed in the partners cars, etc) Yes, there was a little accounting I got to look over time to time, but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Jesus said in Luke 16:10 – “Unless you are faithful in the small matters, you won’t be faithful in the large ones” After reading this, this job requirements and thinking about why I was really here started to make a lot more sense. God may be cutting my pay and putting me in a place I am unfamiliar with, but I felt him saying that if I can’t start from the bottom again with the little things, I will never amount to what it takes to become the accountant I hope to be when the big things come my way.

Matthew 24:45-47 ~ “Who is a faithful, sensible servant…? If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I assure you, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.” These little things that I am doing now are testing my faithfulness. I have complete faith in God and the plans He has for me, so I know that being where I am today is just part of the path of life that He is leading me down. I hope that you can take time to think about where you are today, how you got to where you are, and where you see God leading you in the future. When you get frustrated with the little things in life, know that you are just being tested “and when the master returns and finds the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward”.

Living in Fear?

“…The same power that concurs the grave lives in me…” These lyrics, from the song You Are Here, are very encouraging! In church this week, we talked about fear. It’s something we all deal with every day. But it is something that we should be able to overcome if we are constantly walking with the Lord.

There is a story in Daniel 6 that we can refer this to and it is the one about Daniel and the Lions. Daniel was a hard and faithful worker, one who never did anything wrong, which made the other workers jealous and in result they wanted him fired. Although they couldn’t come up with any way to get Daniel fired, except to have him disobey the king. So the workers went to the king and told him how great he was and how no one should pray to anyone except him. The king agreed that this was a great idea and asked if all the employees knew about this new law he was going to create, and all the employees said yes, they all agree it should be a law. But it ends up Daniel was not informed. The employees knew that Daniel prayed at home three times a day to God so they gathered around to watch him. That evening they came back to the king and told him that Daniel had been praying to his God. As much as the king hated to he commanded Daniel be thrown in the lion’s den, since he disobeyed his commands. The king told Daniel, “I hope the God you pray and serve will rescue you.” The next day the king came back to see if Daniel’s God saved him, and indeed he did. God had sent angles to shut the mouths of the lions and when Daniel was removed from the den there was not even a scratch on him. The king then declared “Daniel’s God is great, and I order that everyone in my kingdom must respect the Lord God, who rescued Daniel from the hungry lions.”

Daniel had complete faith in God. He didn’t have a fear of the lions because he knew he had done nothing wrong. Now today, I know I have lots of fears and things that come up that I talk myself out of doing when I know I really should. Those things are like the lions, which is also satin, who is talking us out of the good things God wants us to do. He doesn’t give us any faith that we can handle the task God has laid out in front of us.

People who have faith in God know that playing it safe is most times more risky. Standing up for what you believe in can be hard, especially in religion, but in the end it means so much! People who also have faith in God know that the bigger their God is the smaller the Lions (Satin temptations) will become. There is no such thing as a risk free faith. But in this Christian faith, God promises us the security of an everlasting life; if we believe and serve our God to the fullest while we are here on Earth. So taking the all of the risks he places in front of us are totally worth it!

I encourage you to chase those lions in your life away! Think about what God has called you to do that maybe you’re not doing because of all the lions holding you back. People with real courage and faith in God chase lions, people without that courage stand back and hide while more lions build up. 2 Timothy 1:7 ~ “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear!