Focus on the Prize, the true Treasure

 I have a confession to make, every once in a while, maybe once in a blue moon, I let my ADD get the best of me. (laying on the sarcasm pretty thick) So often, I find myself engaging in a great conversation or a thought provoking moment to myself and then...Squirrel!! (Up reference for those not inclined to animated movies, if that is the case, I am praying for you!)  Even as I write this blog, you can see rabbit trails developing... ok, here we go, 1...2....3.... focus!

 This disposition to get distracted does not stay isolated in my mind, but it rears its ugly head in my spiritual walk.  So often things are grabbing at my attention, my loyalties, or worse the throne of my heart.  I fall into this trap that things of this world are greater than God.  Maybe money will make me truly happy, or this relationship, or this position will give me significance and slowing the power and the presence of God diminishes in my mind.  He becomes an afterthought, my time with Him becomes too much of a burden, and His will and plan for my life seems like it really isn't that great.  Then wham!  I fall on my face, I find myself in a huge bind, or my heart gets shattered into a thousand pieces.  Then I come crawling back to God like the prodigal son and He rushes to me with open arms!  I hate it when I lose focus and when I believe the lie that this world has more to offer than the loving, gracious, and amazing God of the universe.  He truly is the giver of all good gifts. (James 1:17)

So how do I stay focused on Him?  I wanted to draw your attention to Philippians 3:12-14:

"¹² I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. ¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

 I believe this focus originates with a humble spirit.  Paul, who is one of my spiritual heroes, was completely honest with his spiritual walk, he had not arrived yet.  In my spiritual highs, I have a tendency to get complacent, or down right prideful.  The great deception is that we can do things on our own or that we don't need God.  In reality, we are so dependent on God, it isn't even funny.  He hold us together(Col 1:17), He gives us breath and life(Isaiah 42:5), and He knows the future and His plans always come to pass(Isaiah 46:9-10).  Basically, nothing would exist without God and He has the power to do what He pleases.  Pride is saying that God is a liar and we can do things on our own.  Everything falls short of God, money, power, relationships, jobs, anything this world can offer.  When we have the right perspective, He gets much bigger and everything else, including ourselves gets much smaller.

 With humility can sometimes come the feeling of condemnation.  This is the second part of focus, forgetting what is behind us, or our past.  When we humble ourselves, we give the opportunity for guilt of sin to beat us while we are down.  However this should not be the case, for Christ died for sins once and for all, (1 Peter 3:18) and there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Sin no longer has any power over us because of Christ (Romans 6:6-11) and now we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Our focus can not be on the sins and mistakes of our past.  This diminishes the redemptive work of Christ.  We need to claim the victory that Christ has once and for all defeated sin and when we loosen the chains of our past, we can strive and reach for the future that we have in Christ as new creations.

 So when we understand who God truly is and what Christ has truly done for us, our focus hones.  We see that the world has nothing to offer us in comparison to God and that our lives have been forever changed through Christ and we are sealed by His gracious sacrifice and the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Eph 1:13-14)  You see, the prize is Jesus, He is the ultimate treasure.  He is where we find acceptance, love, worth, hope, joy, peace, and salvation.  He is like the treasure in the field that the someone finds and goes and sells everything they have to buy that field. (Matthew 13:44)  If He isn't the prize, we are chasing after things that are fading, that will disappoint, and that will never satisfy. (1 John 2:17, John 6:35) 

 Paul had the right perspective, he knew that he would never achieve the prize until he saw Jesus face to face.  Everything on this earth, all his accomplishments meant nothing to him, (Phil 3:4-11) and he focused on what was to come, on the realities of heaven. (Col 3:1-4)  I need to follow Paul's example and I pray the same for you as well.  

 Father, I pray that our focus will be on You and You alone.  I know that this world has nothing to offer me.  I have tried to find satisfaction apart from You and I ended up empty.  Please give us the strength and the ability to focus on You.  Thank You for revealing how awesome You are and how much You love us.  Thank You that You accept us with open arms, that You love us just as we are, and that You have an amazing plan for us to experience true life in You.  You are awesome God and I can not praise You enough.  Thank you for allowing me to speak and I pray that You would change our hearts and help us focus on You.  I love You, Father.  Amen.

May the peace of Jesus reign in your hearts,

Daniel     

You have never seen a love like this

Greetings!

Long time no see, however...

Love is in the air.  I am not talking about the giddy, bubbly love that men and women experience around Spring and Summer time, I mean it is literally in the air.  Take a breath.  That is love!  Can you control whether you will take your next breath?  I will never know when I will take my last breath.  My life is being held by someone greater than me, and that is a sobering thought.  Is there anything I can do to add a day to my life?  Luke 12:25 says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"  So whether we want to admit it or not, our life hangs in a balance that we have no control over.  So what sustains us?  God's love and mercy.

Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT- But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

I want to rest on how truly amazing God's love is.  I, along with many other people, have been burned by love.  You may be experiencing this right now, someone you loved has betrayed you and taken your feeling of affection towards them and crushed them.  Some of you may feel unlovable, or that love is never to be trusted.  Some of you may have experienced love, but it was based on conditions, it may have been based on how much fun you had and when the fun stopped so did the love.  Whatever your experiences are with love, I am going to ask you to do me a favor.  Don't look at the God's love with the same lens of all the experiences that you had with love and allow God to reveal how much He truly loves you, and how much He truly values you!  

God love embodies so many things, but I want to focus on a few amazing qualities.  God's love is timeless - Ephesians 1:4-5 - "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." Allow that to sink in.  Before He formed the earth and the stars, God saw you and loved you!  It was not because you did anything to earn that love, it was completely based on God's choice to love you.  He wanted to love you and it brought Him great pleasure to shower His love on you!

God loves us just as we are. - Romans 5:8 - "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Christ accepts you as you are. (Romans 15:7)  Even when were enemies of God,(sinners) He sent Jesus to die for us because He loved us.  You don't need to reach a spiritual level, or read the Bible enough, or sin less to earn God's love.  It is unconditional.

The bond of love between you and God is inseparable. - Romans 8:38-39 - "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That pretty much speaks for itself.

God went to great lengths to love you and pursue you.  - Romans 8:31-32 - "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?"
You are that valuable to God that He would allow His son to die for you.  Do not allow anyone on this earth to determine your value or make you feel worthy.  The God of the Universe saw you before He created everything, loved you, and said you were so valuable that He would send Jesus to die for you.

God loves us because of choice not because of need. - 1 Chronicles 29:14 - "But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!"  God doesn't need us to love Him.  He is the originator of love. (1 John 4:19) This is so important, because our love is reactive.  We love because someone loved us; our parents, our spouses, our friends, whomever it is has showed us love and we respond by showing it back to them, or we show them love and they give it back to us.  However, our love knows limits and in most cases, if rejected enough we will stop loving.  God doesn't need our love to continue loving us, but He graciously and greatly pours His love out not because we deserve it or so that we will reciprocate it back to Him as if He needed it.  His love is completely selfless. 

So what is our response to this amazing love?  Do you think it would be wicked to have this love revealed to us and reject it?  We do it every day though, we look for other things to validate us, to find satisfaction, to find love, and we fail to realize that the floodgates of pure, unmerited, and genuine love are waiting to be opened, if we just say yes, and accept the love that God is so readily desiring to pour out on us.  

Your quest for true love can stop here.  You are at a crossroads.  You can respond to God's love by accepting it as a free gift and fall at His feet and worship Him.  Or you can continue this foolish quest to find love, worth, or life in the shift sands of this world.  I pray with all of my heart that you would taste and see that the Lord is good and that He loves more than you can possible imagine.

Love in Christ,

Daniel   

When you do good wrong, it's bad.

First off, let me explain the title. In my small group there is someone that is teaching me how to communicate through sign language. I think it is so fascinating, however as a novice, I tend to make mistakes, some of which would be offensive to anyone that can understand me. So when you say "good" in sign language you touch your hand to your chin and then put it in your other hand with your palm up. If you put your palm down it means "bad." So as I was learning I kept doing good wrong, which was bad. It became a running joke in my small group, however it made me think of my Christian walk and the story of Saul. I will expound on that in a bit.

I am reading through the whole bible in 90 days as a part of this mentorship program called D90X and we have been going through the story of Saul and David in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel 13:1-15, we find Saul in a tough spot. The Philistines are gathering to fight Israel, but before Saul can fight he has to wait for Samuel to come and offer sacrifices to the Lord. The Israelites were getting restless and so Saul springs into action and offers the sacrifices since Samuel had not arrived yet. Just as he did that, Samuel showed up and rebuked Saul for disobeying the Lord.

I see myself in this same situation many times as well. Have you ever been impatient with the Lord and taken matters in your own hands? Even though offering sacrifices to the Lord is a good thing, Saul still sinned. The root of his sin is that didn't trust the Lord. Things were looking bad, Saul had to act because the Lord didn't. Maybe the Lord had forgotten about him, or He didn't see the how the situation was unfolding. Have you ever reacted in the same manner as Saul? I know that I have.

Fast forward two chapters, in 1 Samuel 15, Saul is given the command to wipe out the Amalekites for their sins against Israel. He is supposed to utterly destroy them, however he spares the king, all of the gold and silver, and all the good sheep and cattle. When Samuel confronts him about this, Saul makes excuses. He says that he was bringing all the treasure back to the Lord, and was bringing the animals back to sacrifice to the Lord. Good intentions, right? I mean, the Lord is going to be so pumped that He now has all of this gold and animals for sacrifice. Saul was doing a good thing, right? Samuel quickly corrects Saul, "But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fats of rams." (1 Sam 15:22)

Ok, I know that we don't make sacrifices to the Lord anymore through animals, however the truth behind it should not be overlooked. God doesn't need our acts of service, God doesn't need our money, and God is not lacking in anything. Before I go any further, we should serve and tithe, not because God needs it but because we get the opportunity to be a part of God's mission. Back to my point, God did not create us to give Him gifts out of need, He created us for a relationship for Him. The Christian walk is not about doing what is good, it is about a broken spirit and a humble heart. "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise." (Psalms 51:16-17)

You can make excuses all you want. You can go through the laundry list of things that you do for the church or for those in need, but if deep down inside you do all of this for yourself or do it out of disobedience, it is all in vain. God sees the heart. He sees that the widow that gave only two pennies even though it was all she had, and said that she gave more than anyone else. (Luke 21:1-4) He sees the regular church goer that hates his brother the same as the priest and the Levite in the story of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37) He sees the man that can't forgive others even though he has been forgiven as the unforgiving debtor. (Matthew 18:21-35) He sees the church goer that judges others the same as the Pharisees about to stone the adulterous woman. (John 8:1-11)

Do you mask sin with good works? Are you doing good things out of disobedience as Saul did? Are you rejecting the needs of your family so you can serve? Are you dating a non christian because you want to witness to them? Are you giving for the sole reason that God will bless you? Are you justifying an addiction, because it prevents you from doing other sins? Are you being impatient with the Lord and taking matters in your own hands as Saul? Search your heart. Do you feel true remorse for your sin that you desire true heart change? Are overwhelmed by grace to the point that you want to serve, love, and give to the Lord and others, and forgive others because you have received all that from the Lord?

I say this out of true conviction, when you do good for the wrong reasons or in disobedience, it is bad.

Your brother in Christ,

Daniel

Bless the Lord all my Soul

" Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I love this verse, and it especially rings true when God is blessing me and when I am experiencing wonderful things in the Lord.  However, when I am beaten, battered, overwhelmed by trials and loss, does this verse still ring true?  Can I truly say, "I thank you Father for this loss, or I rejoice in this sickness?"  Can I praise God when someone is taken from me?  Would I bless the Lord if I lost my job or my health?  It is a sobering thought to think that I would find myself being angry at God or disappointed in Him during hard times rather than truly praising Him in all things.

I try to think of the story of Job in the midst of trials.  Read Job 1:13-22.  Talk about a bad day.  Job had all of his wealth and all of his children taken from him in one day.  Imagine experiencing that kind of collapse.  Your life's work, your job, all of your time and effort spend to build your wealth up in order to provide for your family and live comfortably was taken at once.  No time to save some of it from disappearing.  No time to make a decision that would change the outcome.  Then on top of that, all of his children are killed in one day.  I can't imagine the pain that Job and some of you may have experienced.  To lose a child, that you raised and that is so dear to you, that you had imagined them growing old and marrying someone someday and starting a family of their own, was gone in an instance.  Job experienced such loss, and his response to it all is, "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.  Then he fell to the ground to WORSHIP and said: Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."  (Job 1:20-21) I can say that I have never experienced that kind of loss or despair, but if I did I would hope I would be able to react like Job.

However when something bad happens to me, which pales in comparison to Job's loss, my initial reaction is certainly not to worship.  I look for someone to blame, I become angry, I despair, I will pray to God for a reason why, I will wonder if I had committed any sin that would have caused this, but rarely does it come to mind for me to worship the Lord. 

The problem for me starts with perspective, I look at my trials and the bad things that happen to me as something that I don't deserve.  "If there was any justice in the world, these things wouldn't happen to me!"  The funny thing is that if I really wanted justice, I would be bound for hell and eternal separation from God because of the sins I have committed.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)  We were created to be God's ambassadors of His glory on earth, but we have fallen so short of that calling.  God is a holy God and he can not be in the presence of sin, which means us.  God created us to be with Him, to commune with Him.  Not only did we receive loss when Adam sinned, but the Lord did as well.  His desire for us to show His glory and be reconciled to Him was so great, that He sent Christ.  God came down to earth in the form of servant (human likeness, Phil 2:6-8) and experienced a broken world for 33 year and ultimately experienced all of our sins (something He had never experienced) when He died for us.  "He who knew no sin, became sin for us." (2 Cor 5:21)

God and sin can not ultimately co-exist.  Moses, who was sinful, wanted to see God's glory but was told that if he saw God's glory he would die. (Exodus 33:20) God describes Himself to Moses in verse 19 in Exodus 33, "And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." and then look at the verse when God actually passed by, "Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation." (Exodus 34:5-7) God is abounding in love and faithfulness, slow to anger, gracious and compassionate, forgiving sin, and still maintaining and never compromising His holiness.

Seeing what are sin has done to us and who God is it is easy to explain why we have loss.  How do we explain the unexplainable loss that happens to us?  The death of thousands to an earthquake or some other natural disaster.  It all goes back to our sin.  We are not proper representations of God and as a result sin entered the world and now we live in a corrupted and fractured creation.  Terrible things that can not be explained, such as earthquakes, famines, and destruction takes place because of sin; creation was never intended to experience this,   "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (Adam, See Genesis 1:28), in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:18-23)

So what should our response be to loss, pain, and suffering, whether it can be explained or not?  Rejoice in the Lord in all things!  If I received justice, I would die for my sins, so every breath that I take in is truly a gift from a gracious God, that is slow in His righteous anger towards me.  I need to stop thinking that the earth revolves around me and my happiness.  "The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" (Psalms 24:1)  Look back to Exodus 33:19, He chooses whom to have mercy and compassion on.  We are not entitled to anything.  So when we think about what we deserve and who God really is, all trials and all hardships fall woefully short from His grace.  So be thankful in all things.  I pray for the perspective of Job, that in everything, I will worship the Lord!

Psalms 100

 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Here is the song I was listening to while I was writing this:

http://youtu.be/9jYLTn4fKYQ

May the power of God be revealed to us all in His love, mercy, and grace.

Love in Christ,

Daniel

How Can We Find Peace?

Peace seems like such an elusive goal.  There is a restlessness in the hearts of all men, we are looking for rest, and we are looking for peace.  Conflict is exhausting, it is messy, and it incurs loss.  Since, the birth of sin in Adam, true peace hasn't existed.  It didn't take long for it to boil over, see the famous story of Cain and Abel.  The lack of peace is not rooted in the conflict between man and man however, it is based in the conflict between God and man.  Sin is not something that we do to our fellow man, but to God and God alone. "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge."(Psalms 51:4) David wrote this Psalm after he had committed adultery and murder, however he is faced with the painful realization that he has truly sinned against God and not his fellow man.  Sin at its root is against God, however when we sin against others, the consequences still effect our fellow man.



God is the true source and giver of peace. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13) When the Lord gave the priestly blessing to the Israelites, one of the blessings was peace. (Numbers 6:24-27)  However, sin is the ultimate inhibitor of peace with God.  Sin needs to be done away with in order to have access to the peace given by God.  The only way to receive forgiveness of sin was the shedding of blood: "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews 9:22)  The judgement for sin has to be dealt with and the consequence for sin is death. "For the wages of sin is death.." (Romans 6:23)

God is a gracious and loving God, but He is also a just and holy God, and He will not deny himself.  So in order to have peace with God a sacrifice had to be made.  Someone had to be the sin substitute for our sins, some one had to be the two goats in Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement).  Now imagine, that Jesus, the Son of God, came down from glory and honor and humbled Himself to die for all of us.  Please read Philippians 2:5-11, so that the a true picture of humility and servitude can be seen in what Christ did for us. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:12) He that knew no death, became death for us!  Don't you see Christ did what we could not, and through Him the righteous requirements of the law were met for us. "For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,  God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4) "and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Col 1:20) It is through faith in Christ that we can receive this atonement for our sin. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9)

So through this faith in Christ, we can now have peace with God. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1-2)

So what is gained in peace with God?  Read Ephesians 2:12-18 and I am going to highlight verse 18: "For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit." The same thing is said in the above verse in Romans 5.  So through Christ's sacrifice, along with salvation and all of the other amazing gifts we have in Him, (I will blog about that later) we have access to God because we are finally at peace with God because our sins no longer block us from Him.  Think about that! We now have a direct link to the Father, the Creator of all things, God Almighty, because of the peace we receive through Christ.  Here is also where it gets cool:


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

We receive peace on both sides of our petition.  So we have access to God with the peace found through Christ and now God graciously gives us peace to sooth our anxious hearts and minds as we offer our prayers to Him.  God is the giver of good gifts, (James 1:17) His timing is perfect.  However, most of the time, His timing is not our timing.  So as we wait for our prayers and petitions to be answered, God gives us peace that transcends all understanding.  Our ability to trust Him comes from the peace He gives us and is confirmed in the hope seen in His promises coming to fulfillment.  So I implore you to allow this peace to reign in your life! "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Col 3:15) We are so quick to forget how good of a Father we truly have, and get caught up in the instant gratification of our culture and expect God to do the same.  Rest in His peace that He freely offers through His Son, Jesus.  Allow it to permeate you completely, so that when the unknown, or trials come your way that you can take solace in the peace spoken about in John 16:33.  Also, boast only in the cross, because without it, we would have nothing, which includes peace.

I will close with this. "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you." (2 Thes 3:16)

Peace be with you all through our Savior Jesus Christ,

Daniel

Do What is Right and Persevere, God Will Reward You

Hi Guys!

Thank you for all the support and the love that you have showed me through this blog and I hope that I can return the favor with encouragement in Christ and through His word.  I was reading in James today (A side note, I absolutely love that book) and through some of Paul's letters and I was encouraged in the promises of the gospel!

I struggle with waiting patiently for things to come, especially when the timing seems to just make sense.  I selfishly want these done on my time and when I see fit.  That is the case not only when I am good things, but in my trials as well.  It is hard to press through when it just seems like you are getting no where or that your efforts are in vain.  I want to encourage you to keep pressing though, keep fighting, and keep doing good works.  Your reward will be great, in this life or the next. (Mark 10:29-31, Romans 8:18)

^"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4) This is crazy, if you think about it.  Consider it pure joy that you face hardship, pain, and suffering?  Take time to think back on your trials or difficult times, a death of someone close to you, a betrayal of someone that you cared about, the loss of something important to you, a deterioration of your health, or a time that was financially difficult.  What did you receive after you got through that trial?  Maybe you are still in the midst of this trial, if so take heart in God's promises.  The test of your faith will produced perseverance.  Your faith in God was put to the test and you needed to depend on Him more than you had before.  Draw on those times when dependency on Him got you through your trial, because you will soon face another, so that you can reach a further level of reliance and hope in God.  Here is a scripture that correlates with that, Romans 5:1-6.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."

By our faith in God we have been given access to His grace, we hope in His glory, and that hope will not put us to shame, despite our trials, because of God's great love that He was poured on us!  We should not fear or cower from our trials, because through them, we gain an increasing hope and an increasing dependency in the God that richly loves us.  This is a promise to stand on and to take refuge in!  I went all the way to verse 6 because I love what it shows, God's timing is perfect.  When it seems like the trial will overtake us, or that the good that we are doing is just in vain, hold fast and push through with the strength of the Lord and you will be rewarded!  "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him." (James 1:12)

Not only can we be encouraged in our trials, but also when we are doing what is right and it seems like it is going unnoticed or to not avail.  Galatians 6:7-10: 

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.


I feel like this scripture is commonly used when we are doing things wrong and from this we get the famous colloquialism, "you will reap, what you sow."  Meaning stop doing wrong, or you will get what is coming to you.  The same takes place when you are doing right, you will get what is coming to you.  I love the encouragement that verse 9 gives, do not become weary, because God's timing is perfect, (I feel like I saw that somewhere else), and you will reap a harvest, so don't give up!  I have seen God work in this way, but you also may not be the one that reaps the harvest, it may be someone else.  Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9:
  
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

We have all be called to a purpose in our service to Christ, whether to water or to plant, it doesn't matter.   God will make it grow, God will draw people to himself, and we are just co workers in His service.  What a blessing that is and for our work we will be rewarded!! (see verse 8)

I want to encourage once again to push through your trials and suffering, to strive to do good and display the gospel to all people.  You will reap joy beyond anything you have ever experienced.  I pray that we all will gain a deeper dependency on God and His grace to His glory!  What a blessing it is to be found in His love!  I am praying for you all in your trials that you will persevere!  God will always sustain us and strength us through any suffering.  For we are more than conquerors through Him that has overcome the world! (Romans 8:37, John 16:33)

May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts,

Daniel 

Praying and Fasting to No Avail?

I am starting to read the book of Isaiah, and I got blown away in the first chapter.  I was marinating in the Isaiah 1 and was very convicted about my sin and how it effects my prayers.  I would encourage you to read the whole chapter, however here is a highlight in verses 15 through 17.
 
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
   I am not listening.
   Your hands are full of blood!
 ¹⁶ Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow.

 You see this again in Isaiah 58 when it comes to true fasting.  I would also encourage reading this chapter as a prerequisite before you fast.  Here is a highlight from the chapter in verse 3 and 4. 

 ³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’    “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.

What good is it to sacrifice ourselves in prayer and fasting if we are living active lives in sin?  In Joshua 7:7-11, Joshua is on his knees and earnestly praying to Lord, why have the suffered such a defeat and why are they routed by their enemies and God's response is quite simple.

¹⁰ The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? ¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.

Psalms 66:18 reiterates the same principle, "If I had cherished sin in my heart,
   the Lord would not have listened."

God desires for us to petition Him with our concerns and our prayers.  Matthew 7:9-11, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!  God rewards those who earnestly seek Him as well.  "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

Christ's sacrifice also gives the opportunity to bring our prays to the Father.  He is our mediator to the Father and our high priest. "Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Romans 8:34) We even have the Holy Spirit interceding for us, when we don't know what to say, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27)  How amazing is this!!!  We can come before the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and offer requests to the Creator of all things!!  What a privilege that we have in Jesus!  So why block this privilege and opportunity to with sin in your life?  Stop cherishing sin, forsake evil, and approach the throne with confidence that God hears and answers prayers according to His will.

Don't delay when it comes to confessing our sins and your wrongs against others. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)

God answers prayers according to His will, and does everything for His glory, so this is not a remedy to having all your prayers answered.  God hears prayers, but He knows what is best for us, so He will respond with a Yes, No, or Wait.  However, it is very clear that sin disconnects our prayers from the Father.  So if you are feeling frustrated that your prayers are not being answered, but you have sin prevalent in your life, confess and repent from those sins.  God wants to answer prayers for His glory, but if you could care less about His commands and are blatantly being disobedient, stop deceiving yourselves, God is not pleased with your sacrifices of fasting and prayer.  

Praying for you all!  May God reign in your hearts and may you taste and see that He is good and He will always satisfy you!  "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (John 6:35)

May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts.  Your brother in Christ,

Daniel