Category Archives: Trust

But I Want It Now!

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Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 (BBE) “But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition.”  In this passage Jesus was talking specifically about physical needs, house, food & clothing but we see a bigger picture emerging.  He said in verse 31 “Then don’t be full of care…”  Then in verse 32 “Your Heavenly Father knows what you need”.  God cares about you, He has made provision to meet EVERY need that you have and the one thing he doesn’t want you doing is being FULL OF CARE (worried).  Trust that Your Heavenly Father knows what you have need of.

But God….I know what I want and I want it now!

If it’s something specific that you are wanting, maybe a new job or career path, ask yourself; are you ready for it?  Can you take on this new thing without it destroying you?   Trust God to work on the stuff you can’t control.  He knows exactly what makes you happy and He wants you to be happy. Ask God to help you.  Ask Him go grow you up – to bring you quickly to the place where you’re ready, and then join you to your blessed future.

Stop thinking about what you might be missing. When I first sensed the call to go to Bible School, I was hungry for it.  Every day that I had to wait to get there was frustrating.  Little did I know, God had a timing in place.  When it was finally time to move, EVERYTHING was in place.  It was quite easy to make the move.

The truth is that, even though you might be frustrated that things aren’t moving fast enough, the only thing you’re missing is the pain and torment of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Trust God that you are not missing anything good.  It’s all just being deferred until later. Ask Him to deal with you bluntly, and then commit yourself to hear….and to DO what you know to do. Focus on you.

God’s desire is for you to be transformed into the person He’s called you to be.  He’s able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us, so I promise, His vision and dream for you is far bigger than the one you have for yourself.

Don’t be dead set on getting your way.  Don’t be married to YOUR plan.  Because God sees time from an eternal perspective, He can see what’s coming even when we can’t.  It’s important to understand that HIS plan for you is the best possible plan for you.  You may want something badly, but make the decision in your heart that you are willing to let your plan go.  If you really want God’s will in your life, you will need to get your own agenda out of the way.

Remember to keep God first.  There can only be one 1st place in your life.  Seek His kingdom first!  Then the other stuff will be added unto you.

Your Word, Your Reputation.

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I used to have a Jeep truck that developed an electrical problem.  While I would be driving down the road, it would just suddenly die.  The tach needle would fall to zero and I would be coasting.  Many times it would fire back up just as suddenly as it stopped, and I would complete my trip.  A few times I spent some time at the side of the road before I could get it to start again.  I took it to a mechanic who replaced a part.  I drove it home with no problems but the very next day it did it again.

I called the mechanic, who told me that he was just guessing because he couldn’t get it to fail while he had it.  It was an intermittent problem.  It was an unpredictable and random fault.  I finally found the problem on my own.  It took me a few difficult weeks.  It was a part that cost $12.50.

The real issue here was that my truck had become seriously unreliable.  I couldn’t count on it to get me anywhere without possible failure.  Had I had a better choice at the time, I probably would have replaced the truck and moved on.  It cost me time and money to track and finally solve that problem.  What I remember most about the whole experience was the dread I felt each time it failed, and the tremendous relief I felt when I finally solved it.

We as people can be just as unreliable.  Unlike in Bible times, we don’t seem to take our word too seriously anymore.  This is sad because when a person’s word is not good, whether they realize it or not, that person is destroying everyone’s trust in them.

Proverbs 25:19 says “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.”

Like my old truck, we all may have people in our lives that, while we may like them quite a bit, we know that we can’t fully trust them to keep their word.  They are unfaithful. How do you know they are unfaithful?  You counted on them once & they left you twisting in the breeze.  Maybe more than once.  Sometimes they will be there for you, but sometimes they just don’t show up.  The truth is though, that when someone is put to the test and lets you down more than once, you tend to hold back on trusting them.  No matter how much you like them, deep down you know you can’t rely on them.

Their intentions may be honorable, but they are not consistent in keeping their word.  Because of this, if you’re like me, when I need help, I go out of my way to work around these people.  I would rather not use them at all.

It also speaks to value.  If you value someone, you keep your word to them.  If you care about someone else, you will demonstrate your care by being there when you said you would, or not doing what you said you wouldn’t do.  When we care for others, we make our word stand up – every time.

A foot can still be used when it’s sprained, but you will suffer for it.  An unfaithful person can still be trusted, but at least some of the time, you’re going to suffer for it. The problem is that you never know when they will flake out on you.

Where do you stand?  Is your word good?  This week, take some time to think about it.  Decide to make your word so true that people can trust in you every time and be safe.

Love you guys.  Don’t forget to share this if it’s been helpful to you.

You’re buddy,

Art

Be Like Mary, Not Like Zack!

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While I don’t think most people would equate having a lack of faith with being rebellious, there is a kind of unbelief that is exactly that.  This week while studying, I found myself reading the passage in Luke 1 where the angel Gabriel appeared to Zachariah.  Later in the same chapter, that same Gabriel appeared to Mary, mother of Jesus.  His announcement to both Mary and Zachariah was that they were both about to become parents.  It appears at first glance that when Gabriel made that announcement, they both responded the same way and with the same type of question.  They each received a very different result though.

How were they similar?

They were the same in that in each case, God sent a messenger, an angel named Gabriel, from His presence to declare to each of them His (God’s) will.  Gabriel declares to both of them that they were going to have a child. He also declares to each of them that the birth of their child would be a miracle.  Each case would take faith to receive because in each case, the circumstances said it was impossible.

How were they different?

While it seems on the surface that they were the same, there had to be a difference.  The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).  If they were the same, they would have both received the same results.  We see that the difference was faith.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17).  Weymouth says it this way  “And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard, and that the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ. ”  Believing is a choice, and the ability to believe comes from the faithfulness of the speaker.  You believe me because I have kept my word to you consistently. I have been faithful.  That is faith in me.  Faith in God comes from being thoroughly convinced that He will do what He said He would do in His Word. We believe the promise, because we believe the speaker.

When Mary asked the question “How will this be since I’m a virgin?”  Her question was a question of process.  If you think about it, this had never happened before and she had no basis for faith.  There was no precedence.  Also, we see that once she heard Gabriel’s explanation, her heart went out and laid hold of it.  “Be it unto me according to your word!”  Her faith had kicked in and she believed the promise.

Zachariah had a very large precedence set for him.  He had examples of the Lord opening the barren womb with Hannah.  He also had examples of the Lord giving children in old age with Abraham and Sarah. They were in the same boat he was.  Zachariah had a basis for faith.  Not only that, but the Bible says when Gabriel first appeared to him, he said “Fear not, your prayer is heard”.  Zachariah had been praying for a child.  The issue is that once Gabriel told him the message, Zachariah wanted a sign to prove that the promise was true.  Even the promise from the mouth of an angel wasn’t enough. He wanted a sign.  He was looking at the promise through the circumstances the same way the 10 spies did in back in Numbers 13.

His sign was also his sentence.  He lost his ability to speak until the promise was fulfilled.  Gabriel told him why in Luke 1:20.  “Because you didn’t believe my words”.  I think it’s important to note that the angel took away his ability to speak.  Zachariah’s mouth, and confession may have been a problem that needed to be stopped.

Zachariah may have had strong faith at some point.  We can see from Gabriel’s statement that he had enough faith at one point to ask the Lord for a child.  Just like a muscle though, faith can atrophy.  The world is constantly feeding information that creates fear and doubt.  If we don’t take active steps to minimize that message & replace it with a faith giving message, our faith will become week.

So if faith comes by hearing, then if there is no hearing, there can be no faith.  I have heard complaints about how some ministers will give 10 minute mini-sermons about giving & believing for finances before they receive an offering in their church.  While I’ve been in churches where this was an attempt to squeeze more money out of people, I have also been in churches where the mini-sermon was very faith building.  It was good solid illuminated truth regarding God’s will and His promises.  It helped my faith.  What I’m trying to say is this.  If there is no hearing, there can be no faith.  To say that people don’t need to hear any more preaching about certain promises is in contradiction to scripture.  2 Peter 1:12 says “I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.”   Jude 1:5 says “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this…”  You can never have too much faith in God’s Word.

Special focus.

There have been times in my own life where I was struggling with my health.  After a few days of messing around, I finally came to the conclusion that my faith was weak in this area.  Instead of pretending that I was more spiritual than I really was, I humbled myself.  I realized that I was not where I needed to be and believing that the Bible was true, I determined that what I needed was to hear faith building words regarding healing.  I went about searching for the best material I could find on the topic.  I found a tape series, (yes, they were tapes back then), called Receive Miracle Healing by Dr. T.L. Osborn, and I listened to it…and only it, for more than 10 months.  I realized that my ailment wasn’t going to disappear by itself and I couldn’t afford to handle it medically.  I put my hope in God and trusted that He would get me to the place I needed to be, in order to receive by faith.

The bottom line.

When we get right down to it, we’re talking about trust.  We need to know that God can do it, but that’s only the first part. We also need to be convinced that He will do it for us.  We don’t receive from God based on His ability, we receive based on the level of our faith – our trust in Him to do what He said.  Literally, you can not receive beyond your faith.  And to pretend you have faith in order to appear more spiritual is actually a lame substitute.  It’s your Ishmael. Fake faith will not produce results and it’s actually a form of pride that will BLOCK you from receiving.  God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet 5:5).

F.F. Bosworth said “Faith begins where the will of God is known”.  If you find yourself struggling in an area of your life, and you find yourself defeated more than you are victorious, take heart. Immerse yourself in the Word & ask the Lord to help you.  Don’t let up until He turns the light on.  He will show you light in a verse that you may have read a thousand times, but all the sudden, you see what it really says.  Faith springs alive in your heart.  Once He brings revelation, and has given you a Living Word that you can believe, it’s time to receive it!  Don’t resist the message!  Don’t require an additional sign!  Don’t be unbelieving.  Don’t rebel against the promise.

Instead – Be like Mary!  “Be it unto me according to your word!”