Obedience

                                     When The Door Slams

Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and put them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well build. But the one hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who build a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.                                 Luke 6:46-49 NIV

Listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck (Proverbs 1:8-9).               

            Obedience: "Train children how to live right, and when they are old, they will not change" (Proverbs 22:6) is as true today as when Solomon wrote it several thousand years ago. Running one's eye down the columns of any concordance on the words obey, obedience, and obedient gives some idea of the importance of these words in God's sight. "It is better to obey than to sacrifice. It is better to listen to God than to offer the fat of sheep," Samuel told Saul. In order to give respectful attention, which is the beginning of learning, you must be obedient.

            Think about this: Training must come before teaching. Before parents can train their children properly, they must first discipline themselves. An orderly home and orderly habits can be accomplished only by agreeing together on these things. This is impossible unless the children cooperate. And they don't cooperate unless they are disciplined from their earliest days. This discipline lays the groundwork for teaching. 

            Praying together for wisdom and standing together on all matters of discipline should be a rule for parents. Older children quickly notice when they can play one parent against the other: "If Mommy won't let me go, I'll ask Daddy. He won't know that Mommy has said no." Parents of young children (and older ones, too, of course) should read the book of Proverbs frequently and soak up the wisdom given by the Spirit of God.

            Listen: All knowledge comes from either observation of creation or revelation by the Creator. But observation will not answer questions about what the Creator is like, why He made creation, how He known, who we are, and what our purpose is; these questions can be answered only by revelation, which gives us God's big picture. We are thus called to listen to what He says, for that will give us the key to true knowledge and instruction.

            On the other hand, fools--not necessarily the unintelligent--are those who reject God's authority, despise His revelation, and refuse the discipline of His Knowledge (Proverbs 1:7).

My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:20-23 NIV).   

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness. 

                                        Never Rest Ministries          

            

          

 

Worry And Anxiety Remain Part Of Your Life

                                             When The Door Slams

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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 4:4-7 NIV.

            Who wouldn't want help with anxiety? Few of us want the sweating palms, the gnawing in the pit of the stomach (sanguinely called "butterflies" by some), the weak knees, the dry mouth, and the pounding heart that often accompany worry and anxiety. And none desire the dark hours of nocturnal tossing and turning until your pillow is folded into a lump. 

            But no drug will rid our lives of anxiety, no psychotherapy can take it all away, and no religion will cause it to vanish like the morning dew. Anxiety remain part of your life. 

            The good news about anxiety is that there is a way to deal with it in faith, so as to make the most of it, diminish its power, and find your way through it. If you are willing to stop adding to the problem by seeking every which way to escape and avoid anxiety, if you are willing to let your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ become activated and to follow it straight ahead into your fear, you can discover how to ease and reduce anxiety, and even use it to become the person God wants you to be.

            Think about this: Instead of running away from anxiety, step firmly into it. Although this notion may sound unique, it's very, very old. And it works. It works to give us courage, it works to exercise our faith, and it works to reduce (not eliminate) anxiety and worry from our lives. 

            Renewal: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God                    (Ephesians 6:10-17 NIV).            

Related Bible Texts: Matthew 6:26; Philippians 4:4-7; 1 Peter 5:7; John 4:14

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.  

                                                 Never Rest Ministries

       

All Prayers Are Answered

                                             When The Door Slams

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 NIV

            There is a great difference between unanswered prayer and ungranted petitions. Wishing is not real praying. We could have our wants granted and not have received an answer to prayer. The purpose of prayer is communion and conversation with God. The period of waiting for the granting of some request is often rewarded by a far greater gift than what we ask for. The LORD Himself. What is delayed or denied is according to a much greater plan and wisdom than we possess in our finite perception. 

            Think about this: A dry spell, when it seems that the LORD has departed from us is a sure sign that we are on the edge of a new level in our relationship with the LORD. The purpose of unanswered prayer is to lead us from hearsay to insight into a deeper faith. 

            The danger comes when we think we can ever be pure enough to deserve God's answers. That leads to pride. What is more, it becomes manipulation of the Almighty. We have all known times when the LORD has helped us when we least deserved it. And we know others whose lives are not spiritually blameless who are graciously cared for by the LORD. Petulant perfectionism is boldly contradicted by those times when He uses us to help others know or grow in Him while we still have problems in our own lives. We can empathize with people's needs because we are acutely aware of our own. The result is that we lead people to the LORD and not to ourselves!

            Prayer starts with God. What seems to be unanswered prayer is...part of His instigation and invitation to communion and conversation with Him on a deeper level. He wants us to know Him more profoundly than ever. When we feel our prayers are not answered according to our specifications and timing, that feeling is really a longing for God and not just for what He can give or do for us. Thank God for those times. By them we know we have been called into a much more intimate relationship than we have ever known before!

Related Bible Texts: Romans 8:26-27; 2 Corinthians 1:3-9;12:7; 1 Peter 3:7; Revelation 8:3-4

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                                Never Rest Ministries                              

Five Steps To Forgiveness

                                             When The Door Slams

"This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father" in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.              Matthew 6:9-15 NIV

            If you want to experience the happiness, relief, and well-being that come from the practice of forgiveness, remember these five steps: 

1.        Resist the temptation to be judgmental. Remember, only God knows all the circumstances. Leave the judging to Him.

2.        Learn to be compassionate. The best method is to use your imagination, put yourself in the other person's shoes, ask yourself whether the fault is entirely the other person's or whether there is some blame on your part that needs to be honestly faced. 

3.        Image the whole problem in terms of reconciliation. Visualize the broken relationship healed. See yourself free of the poisons of resentment and anger. Let your imagination suggest hopeful things you will accomplish with the increased energy that will come to you. 

4.        Pray for the person who has offended you. If this is difficult (and it will be), pray for God's grace to come into your heart to give you the strength to do it. Remind yourself that the act of forgiveness will benefit you more than the other person.

5.        End your prayer with the Lord's prayer. Give special thought and emphasis to the part that asks God to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 

            Think about this: Do these five things and you will be amazed at the healing power of forgiveness. If you let, it can change your life.

Related Bible Texts: Matthew 5:44; 6:9-15; Luke 6:28,27; Colossians 3:12-15.

            Affirmation: Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken (Psalm 61:1-2 NIV).

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness. 

                                                Never Rest Ministries

                                       

Spiritually Woke

                                              When The Door Slams

"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."                                                                      Luke 21:34-36 NIV                                                                                                       

            When God...gives us glimpses of the future--it is to enable us to serve Him better not only in the future but by making smarter choices today. Do we have the right to dismiss such signs of the times, their potential for today and implications for tomorrow? Is it a Christian virtue to ignore God's handwriting on the wall? 

            The signs we need to perceive are not vague predictions about the future--many are present realities. The trouble is that they occur so gradually that we often do not notice them. It's like the familiar story of the frog and the kettle of water. Place a frog in boiling water and it will jump out immediately because it can tell it's in a hostile environment. But place a frog in a kettle of room-temperature water and it will stay there, content with those surroundings. 

            Slowly, very slowly, increase the temperature of the water. This time, the frog doesn't  leap out, but just stays there, unaware that the environment is changing. Continue to turn up the burner until the water is boiling. Our poor frog will be boiled, too--quite content, perhaps, but nevertheless dead. 

            Think about this: The Christian community in America might be expected to be more spiritually woke of current changes in the environment than the frog in the kettle. Yet, for the past three decades, at least, the Church has been generally insensitive to the changes. We have continued to operate as though our environment has remained the same. Like the frog, we are faced with the very real possibility of dying because of our unresponsiveness to the changing world around us. 

Petition: Hear my cry, O God, And listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to You When my heart grows faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. You have been a shelter for me And a strong tower against the enemy. I will dwell in Your tent forever And take refuge in the shelter of Your wings (Psalm 61:1-4). 

Renewal: May I rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for me in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).      

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.                     

                                          Never Rest Ministries