Tag Archives: Faithful

God’s Got This

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Sometimes in my life, I feel like the weight of the world is totally on my shoulders. I can sometimes think I’ve got do everything right. The fate of the free world, my family, the US economy, and Ole Miss football recruiting all hangs on my next move and decision.

Ever felt that way?

Ever felt paralyzed by a decision? Ever felt overwhelmed by something you are having to figure out? Ever felt like you didn’t know how/what/when to do it?

I think we’ve all felt that way sometimes. I think we have all been there not knowing what to do, how do it, when to do it.

We can think it’s all up to us. On our shoulders.

Listen to what Paul says today in Ephesians 1:3-10:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In this Paul writes about God’s will. God’s plan. How the plan for our salvation and the salvation for all that believe was made before the world was even created.

God has a plan and a will that’s bigger than any of us. God has a way that’s larger than any of us. God has a hope that goes beyond ours.

God’s got this. Really.

He’s God. Your not. Don’t worry about it.

Today, do your best. Be faithful. Do the best you can for your faith, your family, your friends. Be the person that God wants you to be. Or as best you can!

And know that He has this. He has a plan and He has a way. It’s not up to you to do and solve everything.

Listen to me. It’s not up to you. Really.
You aren’t God. He is God. Be faithful. That’s your task today. Love, serve, forgive. Shine His light. Be salt and light today.

And know that He’s got a plan for the rest. Let go, and let Him handle it.

God’s got this.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Faithful

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One of the things we talk about a lot in church/faith/religion is the notion that we need to be faithful to God.

We should stand up for God. Do right. Do what God wants!

And all of these notions are right and true. All of these notions are for real. We should do each of these things. But, thankful, for us, faithfulness is a two-way street.

Listen to what God says today in Genesis 9: 8-12:

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations

It isn’t just that we are supposed to be faithful to God. It is that God is always faithful to us.

God is a God of covenant and remembrance. God is a God that remembers His promise to us. He will be faithful to His word.

What is that word? Here in Genesis specifically it’s that He won’t flood the earth again. But, that’s not His only promise.

He promised to never leave nor forsake us. He promised to forgive us our sins. He promised to always be by us and by our side. He promised to be our rock and our shield.

He promised to be our salvation.

He is true to what He said He will do.

He is faithful.

Today, may we be faithful to God in all our lives. And may we know, even more so, that He will be faithful to us.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

What Success Looks Like

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Sometimes in scripture, God ask people to do crazy things. He told Noah to build a big boat when it wasn’t even raining, and hadn’t rained in years.

He told Abraham to leave his home and go to place that God would show him.

Jesus asked the disciples to leave behind their jobs and their identities and families to follow Him.

God calls us to things that can be seen as odd and challenging for Him sometimes. Look at what he calls Ezekiel to today.  Listen to Ezekiel 33:31-33:

And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. When this comes—and come it will!—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

He tells him, you are going to be a prophet. You are going to speak and they are going to come and listen to you. They will know that what you are saying is right. They will hear all these words.

But they won’t do them. God is telling him – you are going to say these things – and no one is going to pay you any attention.

This is not the success that we would like to think about. Succes in God’s eyes is not “success.” It’s being faithful.

God called Ezekiel today to be faithful. To preach. To prophesy. To do what God had called him to. And to leave the results up to God.

What a great notion. Today, for us, success is to just be faithful. To all that we can do to be faithful to God and to His calling. That’s success. That’s victory. That’s what it looks like.

Even though no one did what Ezekiel told them to do, he was successful. Because he was faithful.

Today, let’s be faithful. In that, we will find the success that God wants us to have!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

A Good Life?

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Paul tells us in Thessalonians today to live a good life.

Gulp. That sounds hard. That sounds like it might be impossible. That sounds like it might be too much. I’m not sure I want to do that.

I mean, a good life? Does that mean I have to be perfect? Move to Africa? Do everything right? I can’t do all that! If that’s what a good life is then I can’t do it.

Before we go down the road of what a good life may look like, let’s see what Paul actually says today.  Listen to what he writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

What is a good life – love each other. Live quietly. Mind your own business. Work with your hands. Walk properly before others. Take care of yourself.

Simple things. Honest things. Good things.

God doesn’t expect greatness out of us. He expects faithfulness. And if we are faithful, He will take care of the greatness. He will take our faithfulness and make it great.

The key to a good life is be faithful in the small things. Your work. Your school. Your family. Your friendships. Your prayer life. Your study. Be faithful in the common, every day things.

And God will make it great.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

What Faithfulness Looks Like

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God doesn’t expect perfection. He just expects faithfulness. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect or move mountains. He expects us to be faithful.

Ok, nice. But what does that look like? What does being faithful look like? What are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to move to Africa as a missionary? If that’s God’s plan for us us, sure.

Are we supposed to enter the full time ministry? If that’s God’s plan for us, sure?

But today in this Matthew 10:40-42, we see an image faithfulness that is not about leaving home, not about changing jobs, not about doing anything crazy huge.

Listen to what it says:

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

In this passage, we see what faithfulness looks like. Jesus said that even a cup of cold water given in His name is a picture of faithfulness.

It’s about doing great things. It’s about doing small things in His name. For when it’s done in His name, everything thing is a great thing.

In His name, every word, every gift, every comfort, every thing, when done in His name, can be used in powerful ways that our minds can’t even fully comprehend.

Today, God wants you to be faithful. To be faithful to Him. What does that look like?

D o it all in His name. Everything. Do it to glorify Him. Do your work to glorify Him. Do your school work to glorify Him. Do your hobbies to glorify Him. Be with your family to glorify Him.

Do it ALL in His name. And in doing that, we are being faithful.

Inside Out

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My ringtone is a song by Hillsong United called “From the Inside Out.” Every time someone calls me, it’s the song that I hear. It’s also my alarm sound for my alarm in the morning, so it’s the first thing I hear in the mornings, normally several times as I keep hitting snooze 🙂

That song is one of my favorites and it has a foundation in what we read here in Jeremiah 31:31-33.  Listen to what this text says:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

In this passage, the God is speaking through the prophet about the days that are to come. In the Old Testament, there is so much emphasis placed on the covenant. Israel is to keep it. They are to be obedient. They are to follow. They are to to obey.

Over and over in scripture, God tells the people, if you do your part, I’ll do my. (Or course we read over and over again in scripture, that God is faithful, in spite of how unfaithful the people are). But, in spite of God’s faithfulness, the people never keep the covenant. They always wander away. They always choose wrong. They always do wrong. They always choose their way instead of God’s way.

So, God says this. There will come a time when instead of giving you laws to command, I am going to write the law on your heart. Instead of it being about your actions, it will be about your heart.

Not that your actions won’t be important. Because they will. We will still have “stuff” we are supposed to be doing (loving, serving, caring, and so many others) but these things come because of the change that God has made on our heart.

We are an inside out religion. God changes our hearts. And that in turn changes our lives. We are changed from the inside out.

So, today, when the question is ask, does God have your actions, the first question asked is this. Does He have your heart?

Today, may we be obedient, from the inside out

Honoring God

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Starting today with my daily reflections, I’m going to be using scriptures that will be put in the bulletin weekly at Asbury Church.  If you’d like to get a list of the passages I’ll be using, you can click here to see our weekly Salt and Light Bulletin.  Today, we’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 2:27-36.

We see here in the passage that God says to Eli, the priest in Israel, that the actions of his sons have caused God to reject the family as priests. His sons were the priests, along with him, and their actions had brought great dishonor to God among the people.

They were supposed to serve others, and they were using their position to not to help and serve, but to get what they wanted.

They were supposed to set and example to the people of Israel what people of God should look like, and instead they lived their life in a way that brought dishonor to God.

So, today, we see God say in verse 30, those who honor Him will be honored, and those that dishonor Him will be lightly regarded.

Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Today, in our lives, in the way that we talk, live, act, serve, in the stuff that we do, do we honor God?

In the actions and activities of our day today, will God be honored by us? Will He be pleased by us? Will we reflect Him to the people who are all around us?

Will the way that we live our lives bring to God the honor that He deserves?

And, then, going from preaching to meddling, will the things we do in private honor God? Will we see to honor God today not just in the things that other folks see, but in the things that no one sees?

Someone once said that integrity is what we what we have when no one else is watching. Will we honor God today with every action we take?

None of us are perfect. Perfection is not the standard. God is not expecting us to be perfect.

He is, through, wanting us to be faithful. Today, will you be faithful? Will do your best to honor God with all that you are, both public, and private?

Today, may we be faithful. May we give God the honor He deserves.

Keep Moving

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Remember back in school, after a big lunch, how hard it was to pay attention in the class that followed?  In college, I tried to always have something active after lunch, a lab, a PE, something that would get me up and moving.

Because I knew, that no matter how much I loved history (and I did, I really did love history) that after a big lunch, being in a classroom sitting still listening to a lecture was just the perfect way to put me to sleep.

We all know that feeling of being tired and sluggish, don’t we? Sometimes, occasionally, but not often, we may even feel that way in church! 🙂

The author of Hebrews talks a little about this today in a reading from chapter 6. Except he’s not talking about being physically sluggish, he’s talking about being spiritual sluggish.  Listen to what he says:

And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We are reminded today to remember the hope that we’ve been called to. To remember where we are going, to remember what God has called us to. And to keep moving towards it.

God has placed a high calling and a high purpose on you and for you. You’ve got something amazing to do for Him. You are called to a high purpose in this life and your highest purpose in it all was that you were created to spend all of eternity with Him.

You are made in His image, called by His spirit, and given His grace.  So. . .

Keep going.  Keep walking. Keep moving. Don’t stop. Don’t get sluggish. Don’t stop chasing after Him. Don’t stop being faithful. Even if life is hard. Even if it’s not perfect. Even if it’s not what you want or what you’d do.

Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t forget. You are called a high purpose in life. For God. And for eternity.  Don’t quit moving. Keep going.

What to Do?

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Being faithful is not about what we do.  It’s about who we are.  It’s about how we are planted. It’s about where the roots are.

CS Lewis once said “No man nows how very evil he is until he has tried very hard to be good.”  There’s a lot of truth to that statement.  All of us that follow Christ want to be good. We want to do right. We want to grow. We want to be faithful. We want to see good things happen.

And, so, we try to be good.

And, we find ourselves failing. We find ourselves falling. We find that it’s not working.

So, we try harder.

And it still doesn’t work.

What do we do?

Today, Jesus tells us the one thing that we must do.  Listen to what Jesus says in John 15:

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!

It’s not about what we do. It’s about who we are.  He is the vine. We are the branches.  Our job, our task, it is to stay rooted in Him.  If we stay in Him, He is in us, and He does the work.

He bares the fruit.  He grows us.  He produces fruit.  He makes it all possible.

It’s not about what we “do.”  It’s about who we “are.”  He IS the vine.  We ARE the  branches.

What are we do to?  Stay faithful. Stay close to Him.  Remain in Him.

And, if we remain in Him, He will bear fruit in us.  That’s what vines do.  That’s what we do.  Stay in Him.  He will bare fruit in you.

Consistant

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One of the interesting commands of scripture is for the people of God to be consistent.  All over the Bible there is the notional that we are supposed to be daily, consistently seeking God with all that we are.

Deuteronomy tells us to talk about God in our rising and in our sleeping.

Paul tells us to pray without ceasing.

We are told by our Lord to pray for our daily bread.

And listen to what God tells Joshua today in Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

God knew that Joshua had some tough days ahead.  He knew that the people of Israel would not be easy to lead.  He knew that there would be days of frustration and hard work ahead for him.

And so, God gives him to major commands in this first chapter – first do not fear. Don’t be afraid.  God is with you.  Good words for us today. Don’t be afraid. Don’t fear. God will not leave nor forsake you.

Second, what we read here – read the “book” continually.  Study it.  Pray over it.  Make it part of your life. God has given us His “book,” i.e. the Bible, for us to study. For us to learn. For us to pray over. For us to hear His voice in. For us to know Him better through. For us to be drawn deeper and deeper to Him with.

We are a lot like Joshua. There will be tough times. There will be trials. There will be tears. There will be worries. So, don’t fear. God is with you.

And consistently, constantly, daily, spend time in His book.  We eat daily, we sleep daily, we do things we need to do daily to live.

We need to, each day, for the life of our souls, spend time in His word.  May we be consistent.  May we be continual. And may we find life.  And in seeking Him, may we find Him.