Feelings vs. Faith

Lately I have been reading in the book of Genesis about Abraham. In Genesis, God promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation and his descendants would be as the dust of the earth and as the stars in the heavens. OK, let's think about that. God promised that Abraham's descendants would be innumerable! However, at the time the Lord made this promise, Abraham didn't have one child, not one! Let's put ourselves in Abraham's shoes. His wife was unable to bear children, yet God made this huge promise. He must have been totally confused. However, he didn't look at the seemingly impossible circumstances which seemed to nullify God's promise, but he looked at a supernatural God who could overcome all odds. Abraham didn't trust his feelings but stood firm in faith and it was "counted...to him for righteousness."

As Christians, we have God's promises to us given in His word. However, when our feelings say that God's promises are not true we cave in and go with our feelings. This response is definitely not what God would have. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, " For we walk by faith not by sight." Feelings will change almost every day, but one thing is true and sure: our God's promises. Lamentations 3:23b says, " great is thy faithfulness." We have to hold on by faith- not feelings - to God's sure promises. God has never broken one single promise and He never will. There is always a battle with feelings verses faith. By God's power, let's let faith have the victory today.

His Masterpiece

I remember one time when my brother Jimmy worked on a painting. At first he traced out the bare basics of what he would paint and then day by day he added more and more detail to the painting. Pretty soon it all came together to form a beautiful work of art. It was amazing to see how the picture evolved into a wonderful piece of art at the hands of a great artist.

Our Lord Jesus is our Master painter and we are the painting. Ephesians 2:10 says," For we are His workmanship," (or creation) "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." When a person is saved, the process of sanctification begins and it doesn't stop until the individual dies. Just as a painter daily works on his creation, so God does with us. He makes us and molds us to become more like His Son, Jesus Christ. God uses circumstances and trials to shape us into the person He wants us to be. That is the reason why we can rejoice in the midst of trials because we are being made more like Christ. However, God can only make us into the image of His Son if we let Him. If we are stubborn and constantly wanting to go our own way, then we are hindering God's work in our life. The key is to submit to the Lord and let Him do what He would have in our lives. When we get to heaven and we look back at the trials that came into our life, we will rejoice and say that it was worth it all because God used the trials to bring about something beautiful in our life.

'' And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.''- Romans 8:28

picture by Thomas Kinkade

Psalm 57

Today's post is Psalm 57. It is a great psalm that David wrote and it expresses His absolute trust in the Lord even in difficult circumstances.

Psalms 57

1 - Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

2 - I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

3 - He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

4 - My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

5 - Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

6 - They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

7 - My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

8 - Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

9 - I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.

10 - For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.

11 - Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

David set his heart to trust in the Lord (v.7) no matter what came along. One of the best ways to express our trust in God is to sing praises to Him as David did. Let's just trust the Lord today.

Teamwork

I play basketball for the Clermont Christian Academy Chargers. Last season my team hosted a tournament in which three other teams played in. We had previously started to gel as a team and during the tournament we showed it. When I look back at the DVDs of the tournament, My team's unselfish playing is evident. In the first game we played, we were down by alot and things didn't look too good for us. However, we kept our chin up and we stuck together as a team. As a result, we came back in the second half and wound up beating them. We didn't lose a single game during that tournament. We won because of our unselfish play. If we would have only thought about ourselves we would have never won the tournament.

The same is true in the Christian life. So many times we just think of ourselves and what we want. We never think of what might benefit others. As a result, we never experience the joy that comes from serving others. If, during that first game of the tournament when we were losing, we would have played selfishly and have been self-centered, we would have never come back to win. Whenever we put others first, things will run so much more smoothly and we will have so much more success in our endeavors. There is also a certain joy and satisfaction that comes when we sacrifice for others. During the basketball season, I found that a great feeling of joy came whenever I would give up a possible opportunity to score to a teammate who had a better opportunity. If we would just stop thinking only of ourselves and get our mind on others, things would be so much better. Let's ask the Lord to give us the grace to serve others.

Thank You Mom!

On this Mother's Day, I want to give honor to my absolutely fantastic mom! Why is she so great? Because she has been a mother who has sought my and my brother's spiritual welfare first and foremost. Even when we were little infants who couldn't understand barely anything, my mom would tell us of Jesus and what He did for us and because she did that, my brothers and I were able to understand and believe in what the Lord did for us at Calvary. My mom has helped to enstillede in us the desire to serve God. She has also taught us to love the Lord and live close to Him always. She has always been there for us whenever we needed her and she has always sought to give us godly counsel. I could go on and on about all the other wonderful things she has done for us, but I really want to concentrate on these things because they have made the most difference in my life. I thank the Lord so much for my mom and I love her very much. Thank you Mom!

Giving It to God

Today I want to share with you something God has been teaching me lately. As of late, many things ( big and small ) have come up in my life where I just didn't know what to do. But every time those predicaments came, the Lord just seemed to remind me to give it to Him, to let Him handle it. And you know what, every time I gave the situation to the Lord for Him to take of, the Lord perfectly solved the issues and led me in the right path.

Psalm 37:5 says," Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass" (NKJV). The word commit literally means " roll off onto ". The word trust also has the idea of leaning on, relying on, and being confident in. If God is the awesome and almighty God that He is, why don't we just commit all the things that weigh us down, the things that are heavy on our heart, to Him. When we look in the Bible at all the miraculous things that God has done to show His power, we realize just how simple and easy it is for God to handle our problems.The Almighty God is always faithful and we can put our full trust in Him. The Lord loves us and He wants to carry our burdens for us so He can show His love and power towards us. Psalm 36:7 says," How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings." We can "roll off " our burdens on to Him with the utmost confidence that He loves us and that He will handle our difficult situations in His perfect will and way. We must be willing to submit to the Lord's will for our burdens and not stubbornly hold on to what we want. His will is best and we must keep that in mind Let's stop fretting and being weighed down by our burdens. We will never know the fullness of God's joy and peace until we learn to commit our burdens to Christ. Just give all our cares to God and trust Him to handle everything.

"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.''- 1 Peter 5:7

Mike

Seeking God's Will

Well, recently my family had a situation where we really needed a new car. We prayed about what God wanted us to do. We started to look for a new car and my dad came acrooss a good used car with low mileage. To make a long story short, a situation arose where another family wanted to finance that car, but there was a chance there loan would be denied. We were informed about this and the manager of the dealership the car was at, said that if the other family's financing didn't go through, he would work out a deal with us. So we prayed and asked the Lord that if it was His will for us to buy the car, he would stop the other family's financing from going through. Well, the Lord answered and the finance didn't go through. We later saw how buying the car was truly God's will because afterwards, while picking up a small part for the car, my mom was able to lead the sales lady to the Lord! If we had not bought the car than my mom never would have been able to do that.
When we truly seek God's will with a submissive heart, the Lord will show us His will. We were willing to do what God wanted and we waited to act until He clearly showed His will. The Lord is certainly good to those who seek Him and to those who wait for Him ( Lamentations 3:25) Let's seek the Lord and His will rather than our own.