Adversity: October 16, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 2015.

ADVERSITY

DEFINITION:

Difficulty or misfortune; calamity.

SCRIPTURE:

He (the wicked man) says to himself, “I will not be moved; throughout all generations I will not be in adversity”. Psalm 10:6

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

We all face times of adversity in our lives. At the time of adversity we also often wonder why God allows these things to come into our lives since we have put our trust in Him. We must realize that the scripture is clear in telling us that at times the Lord permits adversity to come into our lives in order to fulfill His purpose in our lives.

One of the best illustrations given us is the life of Joseph. His life clearly illustrates that God sometimes grants permission for adversity to enter our lives so He might accomplish an ultimate goal. We need to note that we live in an evil world and the enemy, Satan, is the one that brings adversity into our lives and God sometimes allows it and at other times does not allow it.

When Joseph shared two dreams he had with his brothers, dreams in which Joseph dreamt that his brothers would one day bow down to him, the brothers started to look for ways to destroy him. Yes, at times adversity comes from one’s own family.

This was the beginning of adversity for Joseph that God was allowing for a purpose. The brothers sold Joseph into slavery, and then soon he became a slave to Potiphar who was an officer of Pharaoh. Joseph quickly rose to prominence in his new position but being falsely accused of raping Potiphar’s wife he was put in prison for a crime he never committed.

Joseph handled adversity in a positive manner. He did not become bitter or blame God, nor did he wallow in self-pity. He didn’t ask God, “WHY” he had to suffer so much adversity. He put his complete trust in God. He humbly obeyed those over him and worked hard at whatever task assigned to him. Even in prison he rose to a position of leadership. God blessed him, even in prison, with the ability to interpret dreams first for a royal servant and then for Pharaoh. At the right time in God’s plan He reversed Joseph’s adversity.

Joseph soon became Prime Minister and was used by God to keep his brothers alive during a devastating famine. In looking back over his life Joseph realized that God had been in charge all the time. Nothing had happened to him apart from what was God’s will and divine plan.

In the same way for us today, we belong to the Lord and any adversity we experience remains subject to the Lord’s power and grace. He never stops being in charge of our lives. He never loses authority over the circumstances we face. God is always in control.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

PRAYER:

When adversities come my way today help me to understand that You are in control of every issue in my life. Thank You for using any adversity I face today to fulfill Your purpose in my life.

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Provision: October 15, 2015

TODAY'S WORD FOR THURSDAY OCTOBER 15, 2015.

PROVISION

DEFINITION:

An act of providing or supplying.

SCRIPTURE:

And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way”. Matthew 15:32.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

When a person accepts Jesus as their Savior one of the great benefits is knowing that God will provide everything you need in life. He will never let you down. We have been involved in ministry now for 60 years and there have been numerous times when we felt we were at the bottom of the barrel with no energy to carry on. We understand when someone feels that the service they do for the Lord is demanding and draining.

When you come to the point where you feel that you have used up all your resources the only thing that can help you is the intervention of God. It is at this time when God reminds you that He is the one that fuels your ministry when it is done in His name.

In the verse we have put above we can see a situation when the disciples were told by Jesus that it was time to feed the multitude of 4,000 that had been with them for three days. They did not know where to turn to get food. They were in the middle of nowhere on a hill with no resources available.

The disciples, unfortunately, could not look beyond the barrenness of their surroundings for the provisions they needed. In verse 33 they discussed with one another where there was a place to find so many loaves of bread.

These were the same men that dropped their fishing nets and stepped out by faith to follow Jesus. Had they forgotten that the Lord had cared for them since they responded to His call? And now He could do the same but no one showed any remembrance of that faith.

God knows when you run out of resources. In Matthew 6:8, Jesus tells us, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” You have trusted Jesus for your salvation, can’t you trust Him to provide for the other things you need?

God will always provide for your needs above and beyond your expectations when you obey Him. Look what He did for the crowds that were with Him for three days. From seven loaves of bread and a few fish He provided enough for everyone to eat all that they needed and more so that there was food leftover. So, we need today to trust God in every situation we face and He will have compassion on us and will not send us away hungry. He will provide abundantly.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

PRAYER:

I thank You for the assurance that You will provide for me and my family all the provisions we need. Keep us alert to taking advantage of every opportunity You send our way to glorify Your name. May others see Christ in us as we serve You to our very best.

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Prayer: October 14, 2015

TODAY'S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14, 2015.

PRAYER

DEFINITION:

The act of addressing a divinity; ask earnestly for; to communicate with God.

SCRIPTURE:

Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. Psalm 88:2.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Acts 6:4.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Many people ask us by email why God does not answer our prayers sooner? There are many reasons but never doubt that God does hear your prayers and will answer them in His due time. Let us share with you some reasons that God delays His answer to us.

First, is because of our doubt. Remember that with faith all things are possible with God but He wants us to trust Him fully and so many times our trust is shaky. Yes, we doubt if God even hears our prayers. Go to God with your need without doubting His love, power, and provision for us.

Secondly, many try to manipulate God with a request. If we try to control God by telling Him what we want or what the situation is that is manipulation and God will not respond.

Thirdly, many people when they pray do so with the wrong motivation. Self-centered requests and requests tinged with evil intent will not receive an answer. God will not partner with our lusts or our schemes.

Fourthly, sin is disobedience and our sin can prompt God to withhold His loving hand from us. When we disobey His commands as outlined in His Word and refuse to repent of our wrong doings, He will withdraw His favor and wait to answer us until we deal with our sin.

Fifthly, God cannot be expected to compensate for a lazy or negligent person that has a lack of being responsible. Many believers today lack responsibility and God will not respond unless we are responsible.

Finally, God desires at times to teach us to patiently wait on Him and He might want us to focus on our spiritual and eternal needs so we will learn to trust Him in all things and for all things. Even when God delays His answers , He wants us to keep on praying.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

PRAYER:

Teach me Lord, that prayer is an act of faith. Help me to learn as I pray that You know all things and that I need your wisdom, strength, ability and peace. Thank You God that I know that You will never fail me when I call upon You.

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Faith: October 13, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY OCTOBER 13, 2015.

FAITH

DEFINITION:

Belief; confidence; loyalty.

SCRIPTURE:

Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31.

We walk by faith, not by sight. II Corinthians 5:7.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. II Timothy 4:7.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The disciples were caught in a terrible storm (Matthew 14 above) which approached them quickly and they felt they were close to physical harm. Just when they were convinced that they were about to be swamped, Peter looked up and thought he saw a ghost walking toward the boat. But it was no ghost, it was Jesus. Peter responded when he saw Jesus and he overzealously asked Jesus to bid him to come to Him.

Peter climbed out of the boat and started to walk toward Jesus, keeping his eyes on Him. But the waves got a little higher and Peter became so concerned about the waves that he took his eyes off Jesus to focus on the waves, and he immediately began to sink. Peter stepped out on faith but quickly lost faith and began to sink in doubt and fear.

We can learn from Peter. When he began to sink the scripture reminds us that Peter cried out to the Lord because the situation was too grave for him and he needed the Lord to help him. The Lord reached out and pulled him to safety and asked Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

It is through challenges and trials in our lives that we grow in our faith. When a need arises in our lives we try to fill the void, try to solve the problem and try to decrease the pain in our own power. We struggle, fight and finally when we know we are losing we call out to Jesus who we know knows us well and loves us unconditionally.

Trials are often given us in order for us to grow our faith. The more we fail trying to solve life’s situations in our own power and learn to give them to Jesus, the stronger our faith becomes. For our faith to increase it requires our consistency in trusting the Lord, obeying His commandments and seeking His help and guidance. We must stand firm in what we believe and when we do God will provide the strength and hope for us to continue on.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

PRAYER:

Help me to persevere in believing what You say to me. Help me to obey and endure through every situation I face knowing that You will show me daily the fulfillment of all Your promises.

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Jealousy: October 12, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY OCTOBER 12, 2015.

JEALOUSY

DEFINITION:

Watchful; feeling jealous; apprehensive of the loss of another’s affection; vigilant in guarding something; feelings of envy of bitterness; feeling of resentment toward someone because they have something we desire.

SCRIPTURE:

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not bow down to them, for I, your God am a jealous God. Exodus 20:3-5.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. Galatians 5:19-20.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

As we see in the verses above there are two kinds of jealousy. One is divine jealousy and the other is human jealousy. There is a vast difference in the two.

In the verse from Galatians we see jealousy included in a list of things that are sin. In the verse from Exodus we see that God is a jealous God and God is without sin so God cannot be jealous as we are as humans.

Jealousy can be either an intense positive interest of someone or something or it can be an intense negative attitude of resentment of someone or something because they have something they desire to have.

Jealousy that is positive is maintaining or guarding what belongs to someone. This kind of jealousy stems from love.

God created us and loves us with a jealous love. He desires to guard and protect us because we belong to Him. He desires to keep us from anything or anyone that would separate us from Him. This is divine jealousy.

Sinful jealousy is hateful resentment toward someone because they have something we want and do not have.

Have you ever felt jealous of someone else’s success? Maybe they got a new car or a promotion at work that you felt you should have received. When situations like these upset you, you just may have a sin problem. And that problem is that there is jealousy taking root in your heart.

Jealousy is an emotion of extreme displeasure upon seeing someone else’s success. This can poison good relationships, ruin our Christian witness, and keep us from receiving God’s blessings on our life. In Galatians 5:19-20, Paul calls jealousy a work of the flesh. God wants us to conquer these volatile hateful emotions in our lives. Here are some thoughts that may help you.

It is important that we learn to confess our jealousy. This emotion will always have you take your eyes off of the Lord and fix them on some other person or object. Whenever you place a higher value on something over your relationship with God it is a form of idolatry and you put yourself under divine judgment.

Secondly, we must realize that we are disagreeing with God if we are jealous about someone or something. If God chooses to bless someone with something you desire and you become jealous, bring this feeling to God and ask Him to restore a godly perspective in you.

When we see that jealousy is coming we should stop and thank God for what He is doing in someone else’s life. When you praise God, you put yourself in a position to receive a blessing from God. We also need to ask God to put love in our heart for the person you might be jealous of. Do not let jealousy stir up malice and hate in your life but learn how to please God and receive blessings from Him.

Keep your focus on God; Delight in Him knowing that He has promised to give you the desires of your heart. Focus on what God has done for you and on His promises to you in His Word.

When you are grateful to God for the way that He has blessed you, even though it may be less than what others may have, you will not be so tempted to be jealous. God blesses us if we are faithful to Him.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

PRAYER:

My prayer today is that you would remove all jealousy from my heart and from my thoughts and words. Give me a spirit of gratitude and a shared happiness for others that receive special blessings from You. May my family be blessed by You because of our love and loyalty to You.

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