First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV)
We are culture of ME. Our natural bent in life it to make sure all our needs, wants & desires are met. Its very counter intuitive to put someone else's needs before yours. Even in our prayer life, we tend to pray for things for us, things we want to happen or for our situations to improve. Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves that we forget why Jesus came. He came to serve, not to be served. He came to be the perfect example of a loving sacrifice. A perfect example of how to die to yourselves daily so others may be lifted up and encouraged. When we put others needs ahead of ours, we gain perspective on how God created us to operate.
A perfect example is marriage. God made marriage for us to draw closer to Him. When we draw closer to Him the natural outpouring is sacrificial love. He designed marriage to be a way to show the traits of God to your spouse and to die to each other daily and with all you have, serve the other unconditionally. Sounds hard doesn't it? Well it is, on our own. When we allow our earthly desires and wants to be our driving force, we will naturally only focus on ourselves and in turn, degrade the other person without even knowing it.
When we start with God and allow Him to be the center of our marriage, we will naturally elevate the other's needs and wants above our own. I know that I don't want to leave my marriage up to my own desires because my desires will always become expectations. We need to make it a habit to always pray for your spouse. To base every decision on how it will effect your spouse and always show unconditional love even when you don't want to. Like the last part of the verse says "that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." I know I want my marriage to be peaceful, quiet (without arguments), godly & dignified in every way.
My prayer is that you can always elevate your spouse and show them how much you care and most of all how much God loves and cares for them
Grace and Peace
Ben
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Hide or Seek
Today's verse is:
“Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. (Jeremiah 33:2-3 ESV)
We live in a culture where things are too easily obtained. We don't have to look very far or very hard to find ways to get things that we didn't work hard for. Most of the time it's because we are in a culture of "I need it now". Gone are the days of saving up & working hard to buy something then realizing after we have worked hard enough & saved enough we realize we didn't really need it anyway.
We are an instant gratification culture & I think that bleeds over to our walk with God. We think that just because we pray every once in awhile & open our bible after a convicting message that our prayers should always be answered. That our lives should be easy going & that we should be able to live a care free life. I mean come on, I'm saved right. Why shouldn't my life have all those things.
Look at the second part of that verse,
"Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."
Hearing Gods voice doesn't come with an occasional prayer or reading a verse every once in awhile. Can God speak whenever he wants? Of course he's God but it takes a persistent prayer life, taking time to be still and listen & digging into the word daily to draw near to God. We can have an easy going life when we can refer to scriptures that say things like:
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
Or
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV)
& countless more. When you know the word you can pull from them to give you to comfort and a knowledge that everything will be ok. Many people have "drive-through Christianity" where you just get what you want and move on until your hungry again and the process repeats. Or people who call the bible "the owners manual". I know people have their reasons for that phrase but the only reason I don't like referring to the bible as an "owners manual" is that I don't sit down every night & pull out my Kitchen Aide Mixer manual and have an enjoyable read and really learn my mixer. I only pull it out when there is something wrong that I have tried to fix on my own & couldn't so I had to refer to my owners manual.
The bible shouldn't be a supplement to our life, it should be the foundation. The same with prayer & quiet time. We need to start our day with God putting all our trust in him & know that he can work all things for good for those who love him & are called. We also need to be still. Be still & know that he is God. Be still & listen. Sometimes we focus to much on asking for stuff, we forget to listen to God telling us we don't really need those things to be happy.
I pray that we seek God daily & are praying without ceasing. I believe that is the only way we will be able to learn about the great and hidden things that we have not known that God is trying to tell us.
Grace & Peace
Ben
“Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. (Jeremiah 33:2-3 ESV)
We live in a culture where things are too easily obtained. We don't have to look very far or very hard to find ways to get things that we didn't work hard for. Most of the time it's because we are in a culture of "I need it now". Gone are the days of saving up & working hard to buy something then realizing after we have worked hard enough & saved enough we realize we didn't really need it anyway.
We are an instant gratification culture & I think that bleeds over to our walk with God. We think that just because we pray every once in awhile & open our bible after a convicting message that our prayers should always be answered. That our lives should be easy going & that we should be able to live a care free life. I mean come on, I'm saved right. Why shouldn't my life have all those things.
Look at the second part of that verse,
"Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."
Hearing Gods voice doesn't come with an occasional prayer or reading a verse every once in awhile. Can God speak whenever he wants? Of course he's God but it takes a persistent prayer life, taking time to be still and listen & digging into the word daily to draw near to God. We can have an easy going life when we can refer to scriptures that say things like:
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
Or
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV)
& countless more. When you know the word you can pull from them to give you to comfort and a knowledge that everything will be ok. Many people have "drive-through Christianity" where you just get what you want and move on until your hungry again and the process repeats. Or people who call the bible "the owners manual". I know people have their reasons for that phrase but the only reason I don't like referring to the bible as an "owners manual" is that I don't sit down every night & pull out my Kitchen Aide Mixer manual and have an enjoyable read and really learn my mixer. I only pull it out when there is something wrong that I have tried to fix on my own & couldn't so I had to refer to my owners manual.
The bible shouldn't be a supplement to our life, it should be the foundation. The same with prayer & quiet time. We need to start our day with God putting all our trust in him & know that he can work all things for good for those who love him & are called. We also need to be still. Be still & know that he is God. Be still & listen. Sometimes we focus to much on asking for stuff, we forget to listen to God telling us we don't really need those things to be happy.
I pray that we seek God daily & are praying without ceasing. I believe that is the only way we will be able to learn about the great and hidden things that we have not known that God is trying to tell us.
Grace & Peace
Ben
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