Weary?
While Elijah slept fitfully in the shade of the tree, he felt the sharp hit on his arm and woke to hear an angel speaking.
Elijah was depressed but God in His compassion and mercy takes the initiative to seek Elijah out. He ate and drank and went back to sleep till again the angel woke him so he could eat some more. Sometimes in life, you just need to rest. If your feet are tired have asleep; if you mind is tired go for a walk.
Yet adversity always introduces us to ourselves. We see the real us. The question was the same as to Adam “What are you doing here?” How did you end up in this position?
Friend, the journey of life, is too great for us alone without God, without His food and His touch but after he ate and drank and rested, he was ready for a 40 day walk to Horeb. Is it time for fresh food and a fresh touch from God? Rest in his presence till you get hungry and thirsty for Him, He will not disappoint you.
Read More
Loving God
Elijah stumbled out of the cave into the sunlight to meet God but he was still disappointed. You could hear it in his voice. He had expected God to turn the nation around but all the people who were not on Carmel and certainly Jezebel seem unchanged. We know that if expectations aren’t met in marriage we can be prone to disappointment which brings about a loss of intimacy. If we feel God has disappointed us too, we can lose our sense of intimacy with God. We love him but we feel disappointed by Him; let down by Him, even abandoned. Maybe you blame God for the actions of others or what happened to someone you care about. You may have prayed for something to happen in your life; stood in faith for the outcome but it has not happened yet or never happened and it hurt because we don’t understand. We reason, well I’m not going to trust Him again or put my faith out there again, and we take back part of our hearts from God. We think “I’m going to hold back some of my love or make a mental list of those things which God must do before we trust Him again. Friend, God has not changed but our perception of Him has. We have to be able to say “Father I lay down all my conditions for you to fulfil, on the altar. I ask you to forgive me for allowing my heart to harden toward you. I have let things I don’t understand, cause me to withdraw my heart from you, but I chose to give my heart one hundred per cent to you again.
Read More
Made for a Purpose
History tells us that Paul was a short man only 5 feet high, with beady eyes, a hooked nose, big eyebrows and bow legs. Apparently, his eyesight was not good neither could he speak that well. Paul was bought up very religious and hated Christians. He put them in jail and enjoyed seeing them killed. It is strange that God chose Paul to be the greatest apostle and church planter among the Gentiles, but Paul came to see that God was using his weaknesses and past. Later he says “I’m the chief of sinners, a pattern to all who believe after me. If God can forgive me you too can be forgiven by Jesus.”He was a strange choice for God to make a preacher. Maybe he asked many times for God to fix his eyes or his speech impediment so he could preach the gospel. But God said, “My grace is made perfect in your weakness.” So Paul said, “In that case, I will boast in my infirmities because when I am weak then God is strong.”Paul had skeletons in the closet in his past and possibly felt inferior about his looks but He came to see that God could work around that and even through it. Tonight friend, you can’t change your past but you can embrace your future by trusting that God has a plan to build you into the likeness of Jesus, including using your past present circumstances for His purposes.
Read More
Marriage Expectations
Sometimes we get into season in life where intimacy seems to go from our marriages. Usually, there has been a conflict which is not fully resolved. The couple says they have forgiven but really they have withdrawn their heart from their spouse. Their heart is not fully given to their spouse as it was on their honeymoon.
We are designed and marriage is designed to give our heart away 100 per cent to another person. Withdrawing of the heart is actually hardening of the heart toward someone you supposed to love? Sometimes offence occurs because expectations are not met, so you harden your heart to protect yourself from further hurt. We find we are less able to trust them and we build a protective barrier around the heart.
Soon after the heart doesn’t work emotionally like it used to; the same words the same environments don’t make the heart feel the same as before.
To feel intimacy and connection once again, you have to unconditionally give your heart back to your husband or wife. That may be scary but the alternative is to stay in the prison you’re in.
Friend, if that sounds like you today, confess that you have taken back part of my heart from your spouse and declare that you will not make them fulfil your list of requirements before you give them your heart. Choose to give them 100 per cent of your heart from this day forward and thank God for restoring intimacy in your marriage.
Read More
Just the way you are
You are the handiwork of God. God doesn’t make any junk. Some of you probably think “If I had someone else’s personality and looks I’d be happy with how I am.
In the US they took a survey amongst 100s of bright and good looking kids from well adjusted Christian families and 95% said there were things they didn’t like about themselves and if they could, they would wave a wand and change things about their life.
In a troubled home, where there has been abuse and pain, it’s hard to think it could be the handy work of God, and the abuse isn’t! Not every bad thing that happens to us in life is from the hand of God. God does not cause it, nor does He plan it or want it to happen, but God will show His love and healing kindness in the midst of our pain.
The whole world is built upon the system of comparison but a comparison of yourself with others is not wise. We can’t all sing like Celine Dion but God didn’t want you to or He would have made you like that.
Friend, if you concentrate on what you don’t have and what you are not rather than on what you are and what you have, you miss out on Gods call and potential of the unique gifting He has put in your life.
Read More
Still small voice
So God says go out, get out of the cave. Go stand on the mountain before me. Stand outside the mountain with your back to the cave. Turn your back on all the things that are in your cave. The death, the troubles, the debt, the persecution the lack of fruitfulness and failed expectations. Turn you back on them and stand before the Lord. The Word of the Lord to us is not just for the supernatural, the spectacular the public and the impersonal. But it is also in the private, the personal the still, the small and the painful. Sometimes past experiences of hearing the word of the Lord lead us to think that God will speak to me this way because that is the way it has happened before. Elijah wasn’t just delivering a message he was the message. And the changes in his life kept him dependent upon God; in his sweet spot of dependence upon Him. In constant prayer and dependence upon the word of the Lord.
Friends, you are not preparing a message to give on Sundays but God is preparing a message in you. You are not giving a message. You are the message.
Read More
Self acceptance
How many people look in the mirror and say “You are awesome¸ you look so cool.” How many of us ever look in the mirror and say “I wish I didn’t have such small eyes, or I wish I wasn’t so tall.”
It may seem strange but many young people find it hard to dedicate her life to God because of how they look or the circumstances in which they were bought up. They think if God really loved them surely would have made him look like Cindy Crawford or Mal Gibson.
They reason. “If God didn’t make sure I was brought up in a perfectly loving and holy family, surely he can’t be as wise or kind as we think. Some people think that God made them on Friday afternoon, hurrying to get finished for the weekend! But there is no Miss universe or perfect man in the Bible. God has no pattern person as far as looks go. This is an invention of commercialism who want you to buy the products that they say can make you gain a perfect skin, body or look in life.
The only pattern or standard God give us in the Bible is for character and that picture is Jesus. Self acceptance is accepting that how God made you to look, the personality you have the back ground you came from is absolutely perfect for you. Not perfect but perfect for you!
Friend, God’s plan is that we come though life and become as much like Jesus Christ as possible even if it means that sometimes we have to face difficult situations and people.
Read More
