(written right after losing my job)
When broken and afraid and no where to run
MY GOD IS ENOUGH
When lost and uncertain
MY GOD IS ENOUGH
When life gets confusing and I can not hear his voice
MY GOD IS ENOUGH
With no money in my pocket and no home
MY GOD IS ENOUGH
With no prospects and uncertainties
MY GOD IS ENOUGH
For when we know God is enough
He will supply what we need
And bring us into a better world a better land
Walking out of the desert into the bright blues beyond
MY GOD IS ENOUGH!!!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Goals and Plans and How God Is Involved
So I am a huge goal planner. I love to set a goal and then go and achieve that goal. I also like to plan so that I can see where my money is going. My question is what does Gods word say about goals and setting our own plans? Are we able to plan or do we have to wait for God to tell us what to do?
Jesus set goals:“He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! Luke 13:32
We are to have a goal to please God:“So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” 2 Corinthian 5:9
We need the Holy Spirit to reach our goals:“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Galatians 3:3
We should have a goal to reach in our spiritual walk, a way to help us increase our faith and to press on like Paul:“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
We can plan and the Holy Spirit puts those ideas in our mind:“He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.” 1 Chronicles28:12
God will cause plans of evil men to not succeed:“He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. “Job 5:12 "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' Jeremiah 18:11
God will let evil men choose their bad actions and succeed. He lets every person have freedom to do what is wrong and to do what is right:Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. Micah 2:1
God can cause the plans of the righteous to succeed or not to succeed depending on what He wills: Job 17:11 “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.” Psalm 20:4 “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”
Ultimately Gods plans prevail:
Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
When you are going to make an important decision listen to what others have to say as long as it is constructive criticism: Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.-When in doubt turn to a friend that you can trust a brother and sister who loves the Lord and someone that will tell you biblical advice not what you want to hear because that is not always Gods will.
A man plans his life but it is the Lord who shows the man or woman of God how to get there. Most of us know what we want but have no idea how to get there, well God will help us to arrive where we want to be in the future.“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Planning is a great thing, a needed thing and something that would be good for all of us to do:Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Our plans if we continue will eventually lead to profit. One of my goals is to be bilingual. Some people have told me it would be impossible but I believe that with the Lord it is achievable. “But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.” Isaiah 32:8
The Lord has planned everything in your life: Isaiah 25:1 “O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them." Psalm 139:15-16
God will use us to fill what He wants done in the Earth to glorify Him: Isaiah 46:11 “From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
God plans what he has planned against us to teach us when we turn from our ways:“Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.” Jeremiah 26:3 “Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin." Jeremiah 36:3
God has good plans for us: “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord will reveal his plans to us and to others so that He can prove sovereign:“Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7
God has plans to humble us: “Therefore, the LORD says: "I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.” Micah 2:3
Sometimes we will plan to do something but it will not happen right away:“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Romans 1:13
When you plan think about what you are planning and do not make plans mildly:“When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, yes" and "No, no"? 2 Corinthians 1:17
God willed people to worship Him, not specifically individual people but He planned to have fellowship with us all: Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”
God uses us to fulfill his will: “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:40
Jesus set goals:“He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! Luke 13:32
We are to have a goal to please God:“So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” 2 Corinthian 5:9
We need the Holy Spirit to reach our goals:“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Galatians 3:3
We should have a goal to reach in our spiritual walk, a way to help us increase our faith and to press on like Paul:“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
We can plan and the Holy Spirit puts those ideas in our mind:“He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.” 1 Chronicles28:12
God will cause plans of evil men to not succeed:“He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. “Job 5:12 "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' Jeremiah 18:11
God will let evil men choose their bad actions and succeed. He lets every person have freedom to do what is wrong and to do what is right:Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. Micah 2:1
God can cause the plans of the righteous to succeed or not to succeed depending on what He wills: Job 17:11 “My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.” Psalm 20:4 “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”
Ultimately Gods plans prevail:
Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
When you are going to make an important decision listen to what others have to say as long as it is constructive criticism: Proverbs 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.-When in doubt turn to a friend that you can trust a brother and sister who loves the Lord and someone that will tell you biblical advice not what you want to hear because that is not always Gods will.
A man plans his life but it is the Lord who shows the man or woman of God how to get there. Most of us know what we want but have no idea how to get there, well God will help us to arrive where we want to be in the future.“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Planning is a great thing, a needed thing and something that would be good for all of us to do:Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Our plans if we continue will eventually lead to profit. One of my goals is to be bilingual. Some people have told me it would be impossible but I believe that with the Lord it is achievable. “But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.” Isaiah 32:8
The Lord has planned everything in your life: Isaiah 25:1 “O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them." Psalm 139:15-16
God will use us to fill what He wants done in the Earth to glorify Him: Isaiah 46:11 “From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
God plans what he has planned against us to teach us when we turn from our ways:“Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.” Jeremiah 26:3 “Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin." Jeremiah 36:3
God has good plans for us: “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord will reveal his plans to us and to others so that He can prove sovereign:“Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7
God has plans to humble us: “Therefore, the LORD says: "I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.” Micah 2:3
Sometimes we will plan to do something but it will not happen right away:“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Romans 1:13
When you plan think about what you are planning and do not make plans mildly:“When I planned this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, yes" and "No, no"? 2 Corinthians 1:17
God willed people to worship Him, not specifically individual people but He planned to have fellowship with us all: Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”
God uses us to fulfill his will: “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:40
Monday, August 4, 2008
Gods Peace in the Midst of the Storms in Life
How many of us feel like we go through some kind of darkness whether big or small and wonder how to get out of it? I know that I do and ever time I enter into something difficult a bad grade, a new job, something that I can not control I feel as if I am losing all control and will fall flat on my face. Each time I transition into the new phase I feel like I lose my footing as if all of a sudden God is dropping me off alone to experience the new experience by myself. The truth is that God never leaves us and the new experience is not as bad as we think it will be. Philippians 4:6-7 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, 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."We are scared terrified to the point of exhaustion we wonder what happened to the confident woman or man of God and if we ever will return to the person we felt we were before our life changed in some way. But we will if we just come to the cross and lay our selves down at the feet of Jesus like our sister Mary not worrying and being distracted by everything like our sister Martha.
Mary lived a life of pain and brokenness and if you asked her neighbors she probably was not found to be the most delightful girl in the bunch but she got one thing well one very important thing right to put her self worth in Jesus and to not put her worth in her work or other people. Her sister Martha on the other hand cared a lot of what people thought of her she always wanted to be found in the kitchen cooking and cleaning have a good outer appearance and worked constantly so she could fill satisfied on the outside. But she spent so much time worrying about things that were only temporary and in the end did not even matter. Luke 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." The Lord would remind me of these passages over and over while I thought about peace. Many times when we do not have peace we are distracted focusing on what we want and not on the Lord and what he is calling us to. The Lord does not want us to do what we think we ought to do which is to worry but only one thing is needed to LISTEN to the Lord. Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." If only we could be more like Mary and I hope over time that I learn to be still more and listen to the Lord then to think too much and work without finding satisfaction. But we will all learn and grow and become more then conquerors.
The truth is that we know that we are going to conquer whatever is put in front of us. Each time I have faced something new I have done well even a grade I was really worried about last year that determined if I was going to graduate or not the Lord provided even more then enough. He did over and above I thought He would. I was scared because I was not in control and so I thought somehow God would not provide and I would fail. But we have a choice to believe and have faith and say the good things of the Lord and meditate on His Goodness or to let our minds wander and explore areas that it should not. Romans 8:6 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” We have a choice to not worry and give it to God. The other day the Lord told me that worrying does not mean carrying. Just because you worry more about a matter does not mean that you care more about it or give you more control over the matter in fact you have the opposite. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew 6:27. Not only does worrying not do anything but we have God says enough to worry about each and every day. Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” If we are so focused on the worries of tomorrow then we can not appreciate what God is trying to do in our lives that day. God calls us to rejoice and to live and love and dance everyday sometimes we forget to stop working and just start being and let God take care of the rest. Let us all learn to love each and every day, each and every moment and to love everything that God brings our way. Let us seek peace and God rather then trying to control the matter and worry about it.
Psalm 118:24
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Mary lived a life of pain and brokenness and if you asked her neighbors she probably was not found to be the most delightful girl in the bunch but she got one thing well one very important thing right to put her self worth in Jesus and to not put her worth in her work or other people. Her sister Martha on the other hand cared a lot of what people thought of her she always wanted to be found in the kitchen cooking and cleaning have a good outer appearance and worked constantly so she could fill satisfied on the outside. But she spent so much time worrying about things that were only temporary and in the end did not even matter. Luke 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." The Lord would remind me of these passages over and over while I thought about peace. Many times when we do not have peace we are distracted focusing on what we want and not on the Lord and what he is calling us to. The Lord does not want us to do what we think we ought to do which is to worry but only one thing is needed to LISTEN to the Lord. Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." If only we could be more like Mary and I hope over time that I learn to be still more and listen to the Lord then to think too much and work without finding satisfaction. But we will all learn and grow and become more then conquerors.
The truth is that we know that we are going to conquer whatever is put in front of us. Each time I have faced something new I have done well even a grade I was really worried about last year that determined if I was going to graduate or not the Lord provided even more then enough. He did over and above I thought He would. I was scared because I was not in control and so I thought somehow God would not provide and I would fail. But we have a choice to believe and have faith and say the good things of the Lord and meditate on His Goodness or to let our minds wander and explore areas that it should not. Romans 8:6 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” We have a choice to not worry and give it to God. The other day the Lord told me that worrying does not mean carrying. Just because you worry more about a matter does not mean that you care more about it or give you more control over the matter in fact you have the opposite. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew 6:27. Not only does worrying not do anything but we have God says enough to worry about each and every day. Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” If we are so focused on the worries of tomorrow then we can not appreciate what God is trying to do in our lives that day. God calls us to rejoice and to live and love and dance everyday sometimes we forget to stop working and just start being and let God take care of the rest. Let us all learn to love each and every day, each and every moment and to love everything that God brings our way. Let us seek peace and God rather then trying to control the matter and worry about it.
Psalm 118:24
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)