Fantastic Friday #251- Stand

Stand

⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:8-11

I had a friend come up to me and show me a balance band that he was wearing and showed me how it worked. This balance band supposedly provides you balance to withstand the force someone is trying to use to tip you over into an unbalanced state. Now, I cannot confirm nor deny whether this band worked on me, but what I can tell you is that with only two legs, when someone pulls down on one side of your body you are going to tip over. That is where balance comes into play for us, or another way to look at is that a bike has a kickstand to help keep it propped up. Balance is our kickstand, and what happens when our life gets out of balance. Typically it is when the enemy attacks and pulls down on us, and what do we have to rely on. Certainly we don't have a kickstand, physically anyway. Well, I know that my true kickstand that keeps me balanced and standing against the devil's schemes is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let Him prop you up when you feel like you are falling over, He is strong and mighty to save.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #250- In His Time

In His Time

¹ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward"

² But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” Genesis 15:1-4

Do you have the natural feeling or ability to help others? What about searching out for help from others, and maybe never receiving the help you are looking for that might get you to where you think you need to be. I imagine most of us can realize there are certain times that we need to turn for God for our help, because we know some things we can't handle on our own. In Abram's situation, he was looking for help from the Lord, but in the following chapter in Genesis you can see where maybe he was tired of waiting and tried to help God fulfill His promise by getting Hagar pregnant when his wife could not have a child. Maybe we need to think about Abram the next time we aren't getting the help we think we need from God. God fulfills His plans in His own time and He really doesn't need Our Help to make them happen. Don't try and Help the Lord, but let the Lord Help you fulfill what He has in store for you, In His Time.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #249- Broken

Broken

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Romans 11:17-21

Do you feel broken sometimes? Does it feel like your walls of protection are falling down around you, allowing you to be crushed in spirit? If we have accepted Christ in our life, that doesn't mean we won't see challenges where we feel like we are broken. We need to remember that during those times where we feel broken, we are actually being supported by the strongest root there is in our life, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a loving God who wants His children to love him and grow strong in their faith. That is why he provides a nourishing sap to keep up us from being broken. Listen to what the Holy Spirit guides you to do and don't focus on the brokenness your enemy wants you to feel, but see how the faithful root holds us firmly in our position as followers of Christ.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #248- Home

Home

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:8-10

This week because of God's plan many people have been home-bound and spent more time inside doing things they hadn't planned. One thing I continued to hear God say was that you are where you need to be. You need to be home with your family and you need to spend time focusing on your family and nothing else. I found myself spending a number of hours with things I normally wouldn't do during the week, and spending some extra time with God and looking at His faithfulness to Abraham. One thing that we often forget is that God is preparing us with this home for our eternal home. Spend some time today focusing on your home, your obedience to God, the faith that you have in His plan and how you can look forward to the home being built for us.

Fantastic Friday #247- Give In

Give In

³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels." Mark 8:36-38

You have all heard about throwing in the towel. It was a way to stop a fight from getting out of hand when a fighter really was quite injured. How many of us search the world for answers to our needs and find that it is time to throw in the towel because we have had enough? What happens when you throw in the towel? You give in to the fight and fall into submission to what the world has for you and a little bit of you is drawn away from the Lord. How about not looking to the world and the life you think you should have, but look to the Lord who can enter the ring for you and help you fight the battle for the life He wants you to have. Focus less on throwing in the towel, and more on wiping our brow with that towel after a difficult fight. You will be much better off and I would rather gain what my Father has in store for me than lose my soul.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #246- Words

Words

⁶ Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
I open my lips to speak what is right.
⁷ My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
⁹ To the discerning all of them are right;
they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
¹⁰ Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
¹¹ for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her. Proverbs 8:6-11


Do you ever struggle for Words to speak? Did you have a week where you questioned what to say to someone? Did you feel like if you said the wrong thing that you would step on someone's toes? Maybe it is time that the worry about what to say should be put behind you and you should focus more on what God is saying to you. A lot of times we think we need to say something to make something better, what we could say could make a difference with someone, or we need to say something to mend a broken relationship. There we go relying on our own words again. Maybe we should turn to God and allow Him to speak through us because the wisdom we have comes from His Word and not our own. Don't get yourself into that helpless situation where you feel like you can't speak, but let God lift you and speak for you. Maybe then we will realize that it is His Word that is more powerful and beautiful than our own words.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #245- Independence

Independence

¹⁰ It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹² For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. 1 Corinthians 11:10-12

I always joked that I lost my Independence on Independence Day back in 1998. Each year I relive that loss of Independence and also look back to what life was like before I joined a life of dependence with my bride. I always find it to be pretty boring and I really wasn't that Independent and depended on many things. I depended on my job to be there, I depended on my car to start in the morning, I depended on food to be there when I needed it, I depended on a good book every now and then, and I depended on some kind of change to come smoothly without any challenge. Reading this scripture reminds me of our daily walk when we can sometimes think we are so independent. Maybe our focus should be how the dependence on the Lord can make a difference on those close to us and extend to those further away from us. This dependence on the Lord can lay the job, our car, the food, and our changes in His hands to create a life of dependence on Him and not on the things we have no control over.

Have a great weekend.