You Will Make It!

How is your bracket?

The reason people ask that question is because, by now, we have all failed.  Sometimes life seems like that NCAA bracket, with our mistakes giving us a common denominator.  What did the famous Scottish poet Burns say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray."    

The situation of the Israelites as described in Jeremiah 29 and 30 was worse than anyone could imagine.  The leaders were killed or taken captive.  Dead bodies were everywhere with no one to even bury them.  The temple was burned and completely destroyed.  And those who were still alive were treated like cattle and transported to be slaves in Babylon.  In the midst of this failure is where God spoke the phrase we like to remind our young people, "God has good plans for you, to give you a future and a hope."

Furthermore, Jeremiah encourages the people to build houses, plant crops, and give sons and daughters in marriage.  In short, don't quit.  Continue doing the things, the responsibilities, that God has given you.  God is never done with bringing us into His inheritance, but sometimes there are other internal changes that have greater priority in order to be capable of handling the good He has planned for us.  Adversity is a great motivator to seek God.  There is a saying from WWI, that every man has a God in a foxhole.  And that is exactly what Jeremiah reminds the people that God is calling, "When you seek Me with all your heart I will be found."  Use the current need and situation to lead you into a greater dependence on God's promises and His faithfulness.  God is in the business of restoring what the enemy has stolen, and turning what was meant for evil into good.  He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.  He clearly has a plan for our future and our hope.  We will make it.

In Jeremiah 30, God promises some powerful encouragement.  "Yet I will not make a complete end of you, but I will correct you in justice."  No one enjoys being corrected, but God's ways are life and peace.  Revival, or the abundance of His life and peace, always starts with people humbling themselves.  God promises to dwell with the those who are humble and contrite in heart.  The trials of today often cause us to "break up the fallow ground" and let the rain of God's mercy and righteousness soften our hearts.  After humbling ourselves before God, He releases His intended purpose, " I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds," says the Lord.  (Jeremiah 30:17)  

Jesus, His resurrection and the promise of ours, is our hope.  We are destined to share His nature and glory forever.  God has given us this awesome vision so that no matter what happens, we know that we will not perish.  Not only will we not perish, but all things continue to work for our good, for us who are called according to His purpose.  The verse "without a vision the people perish" may also be translated, "without a vision the people cast off restraint." (NKJV)  The point is that unless we know the hope, the vision of "we will make it," we are tempted to give up and cast off the disciplines of living for the Lord.  

Our bracket may fail, our situation may not always be as planned, there may be a need to seek God and repent, but our God never changes and His word to your heart today is "You will make it."

Harden or Soften Your Heart?

Sometimes we all get busy and just survive the day rather than walk in the life of God He has given.  However, the abundant life of God dwells within us, and we are meant to be filled with joy and peace, as a light to the world.  Jesus declares that HIs joy is in us which enables our joy to be full.  We are witnesses of the goodness of God.    

In Psalm 95, the Spirit challenges us to "O come let us make a joyful noise before the Lord...Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving."  God Himself invites and desires us to enjoy His presence.  The opposite, of course, is found in Romans 1 where the rebellious refused to acknowledge God or give Him thanks.  

Recently I had a situation where it seemed like I had a thousand things to do, but my kids had planned a couple of events wanting to bless me.  My heart wanted to scream, "Just leave me alone, I need to get these things done," but I knew God wanted me to relax, put things in God's hands, and enjoy the time and love that my children were expressing.  The time together was blessed and filled with "God's pleasure."  That's often the same challenge of spending time with God versus the busy things we have on our schedule.  It is like the good seed scattered into the good soil but grows up with the weeds that want to choke it from bearing fruit.  

Psalm 95 finishes with the admonition, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."  The logical question is how do we keep our hearts soft and how do we let them get hardened?  If you remember, after the resurrection Jesus rebuked the disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart, so clearly, we can choose to keep our heart soft or make it hard.  Ezekiel in his promise of the New Covenant states that God will give us a heart of flesh rather than a stoney hard heart.  God intends for us to have soft hearts to receive from Him.  One translation of Proverbs 28:14 states "How blessed is the person who trembles before God, but the one who hardens his heart will fall into disaster."

Our heart is what we have chosen to make important, or that has priority.  Seek first.  We harden our heart when we hear and believe God is saying something, but we have other things on our mind and heart that we "want" to do, or we simply do not consider His request that important.  Jesus quotes Isaiah that the hearts of this people have grown dull and their ears are hard of hearing.  The Pharisees honored God with their lips but their heart was far from Him.  Hardening of the heart is intrinsically connected to how we hear God, what authority or place we give His words, and our obedience.  

On the positive side, God delights in mercy and is always ready to give us a fresh start.  When we obey simple impulses or leadings to say or do something, being faithful in little, we open our heart to become more sensitive, and soft for the next revelation.   Our spiritual heart is like a muscle that gets stronger, more steadfast, the more that we use it.  Hebrews 5 talks about having our faculties trained by practice.  So today, if and when you hear His voice, rejoice that the living God desires to speak to you, and make it a priority to obey what He directs. Truly, His desire is our command.    

What Feels Good

The general practice of the world (and our flesh if we want to admit it) is to live by whatever feels good and whatever our heart desires, with no regard for God and His established rules of right and wrong.  

However, God reveals in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that the human heart is "deceitful above all things, desperately corrupt (or wicked)."  God then states, "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."  Our fallen nature, called the flesh in Romans 8, is so corrupt that it cannot and will not please God.  

When men refuse to listen to God, as Jeremiah 16 points out, He turns them over to "their stubborn heart."  Romans 1 states this fact even stronger, that those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to thank Him, He gives them over "to the lusts of their heart" and "to their vile passions."  When men reject God and His ways, He lets them have what they want but with the obvious warning that their choice will only bring misery and death.  

In short, God lets us have what we want, even though it clearly is not His intention or given purpose for us.  He will even let us go to hell if we want to, even though He loves each person so much that He willingly laid down His life for them.  God honors our choices. 

God's answer for our wicked heart and darkened mind, through His death and resurrection, is to make us new creations. Jesus put to death our fallen nature with His death on the cross in order to give us a new heart and to transform our thoughts in our minds so that we can have the mind of Christ.  It is by the Spirit of God, who pours the love of God into our hearts and renews our mind with truth, that we are able to put to death the deeds of the flesh.  That is why, like Paul (in 2 Corinthians 5:9), we make it our aim to please God and make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14).

Therefore, it is essential to pick up our cross daily and let the Holy Spirit and the Word of God direct our steps.  To pick up the cross means that we admit our fleshly thoughts and desires need to be crucified, and by the Spirit's help we choose and "delight to do the will of God."  We can set the mind on the Spirit and trust His leading, which produces life and peace.

May God reveal His heart and His desire to each one of us, so that the world's deceptions and our fallen-nature heart desires would not be able to distract or destroy us.  We choose to set the standard of what pleases God rather than what feels good.  Well done, good and faithful servant.  

Hear and Obey His Voice

"Let him who has ears to hear, hear."

In Psalm 81, we are reminded that God's heart desire for us is to hear His voice so He can bless us.  "Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!"  As Psalm 81 continues, then I "would quickly subdue your enemies and turn My hand against your adversaries." God's desire is to fight for us, and His prerequisite is that we choose to hear His voice, and then be willing to obey.   

In God, our best defense against the enemy is a good offense.  Let God arise and His enemies be scattered (Ps 68:1) and in James 4:7, "Submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you."  Rather than in our arrogance thinking we can outsmart and outduel this evil spirit being, we simply join ourselves to Jesus who has already defeated Satan and all the powers of darkness.  Then the battle is the Lord's and we experience His victory.   

As Psalm 81 concludes, God, being God who is always more than enough, then sweetens the deal, "I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." What an awesome God who delights in the prosperity of His servants! 

When you take time and earnestly desire to hear from Him, my suggestion is to write down what you believe He is saying.  Then you won't be tempted to doubt in the darkness what you have heard in the light.  You will be more inclined to respond.  God told Habakkuk to write the vision so people who read it would run with it.

Let God bless you.  Hear and Obey!