Are you content with God's answer?

The other day I was at work, and the two-year old who I look after was reading pooh bear on the couch. Well, it was towards the end of the day, I was sitting down to fold some washing. My feet were in need of a break, so once I sat down, I was in no mood to get up if I didn't have to. So, I am folding the washing, and next minute the two-year old asks: What is this, Mary?

I got up and looked at what he was pointing to and told him that was piglet in a sleeping bag. 

I sat down again to fold my washing when I hear: Mary, what is this?

I got up again, went over to him and looked again at what he wanted to know, and then told him what it was. Then I went back to my chair. 

Again, I hear: Mary, what is this? 

Well, this time I was in no mood to move, so I was like: I don't know, honey, cause I can't see it. 

"Mary, what is this?" I hear again, him pointing to the same thing. 

"I don't know, honey, I can't see it!" 

Back and forth we had this chat for a few minutes until I couldn't handle it any longer. 

"Sweetie, I can't see it!!! I don't know what it is!!!!!" I had caught his attention and was saying this in a stern voice.
The little guy looked at me with disbelief in his eyes, then turned to the next page in his book, thoroughly disgusted that I wouldn't take the time to answer his question. (Hmmm...maybe telling the kids that I know everything wasn't such a good idea after all??) The thing was, I had answered his question. But it wasn't the way he wanted. He had wanted me to come over and tell him the answer to his question. But when I gave him an answer he wasn't wanting, he didn't listen to me and kept on asking. 

Well, my friend, unfortunately that is often what we are like with God. We ask him to give us an answer to something, or to do something, but when he doesn't respond how or when we want with what we want, we presume him dead, or hard of hearing. When really, the problem lies with us. We are not content with his answer, or we have what we want to be the answer so stuck in our mind that we are not going to listen to anything else. Sometimes God's answers are vague. He might just want us to hold on, or maybe he doesn't think we need to know the answer to that question. Whatever the case may, we can know that God will always answer us. It may not be the way we want, but he will always answer us. And his answer is ALWAYS best because he knows our future. He knows what lies ahead for us. So we can trust him. 

So the big question is:

WILL YOU BE CONTENT WITH HIS ANSWER?

Trust in God

 All day long I am chased. They follow me.  They attack me. They walk over me and fight constantly to have my mind and soul. They fight to have my being. They want to live in me a life that is not at all pleasing to my creator. They thrive on sin. Who is 'they'? Me, Myself, and I. I long for the glory. I long for the credit. I long for the praise. I am my biggest enemy. And often I leave myself worried and afraid.

Yet when I am afraid I will trust in God. He is the one that needs to be living and working through my life. He's the one that needs to be on the throne of my heart. What a relief it is that I can go to the Lord in prayer and confide in him. He will look after me and fight for me. He wants me. He loves me. He gives perfect peace and love. For this I am thankful, and will strive to live my life for God. 

Being Broken

Broken is not actually a positive word. For when something is broken, then that usually means we have to fix it. But the beautiful thing about us being broken, is that Jesus Christ must come and fix us himself. And that means working on us, and shaping us, and fixing us to be new again in him. But fixing something that is badly broken takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Therefore, Jesus is still working on me, and fixing me. In order to be fixed, we must first come to the place that we are shattered, broken to little pieces, and then ground to powder. We have to be that broken so that we are beyond repair. God uses us when we are broken. In fact, thats when he can use us the most. For we are fully relying on him to help us. 

I have been reading a book called 'The Calvary Road.' by Roy Hession. I have been so encouraged reading it, so I decided to pull out a few snippets from the first chapter about being broken. 

"To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It is painful, it is humiliating, but it is the only way. It is being 'Not I, but Christ,' and a 'C' is a bent 'I'. The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard, un-yielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights, and discards its own glory, that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words, it is dying to self and self attitudes."  The Lord cannot live in us, and work through us, until we first die to self and self attitiudes. 

"It is so often self that tries to live the Christian life(the mere fact that we use the word 'try' indicates that it is self who has the responsibility). It is self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable, envious, resentful, critical, and worried. It is self who is hard and unyielding in its attitude to others. It is self who is shy, self-conscious, and reserved. No wonder we need breaking. As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for the fruit of the spirit, with which God longs to fill us, is the complete opposite of the hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that self has been crucified."

"Brokeness in daily experience is simply the response of humility to the conviction of God, and inasmuch as this conviction is continuous, we shall need to be broken continually. This can be very costly, when we see all the yielding of rights and selfish interests that this will involve, and the confessions and restitutions that sometimes may be necessary. For this reason, we are not likely to be broken except at the cross of Jesus,. The willingness of Jesus to be broken for us is the all-compelling motive in our being broken, too." 

"We see Him taking on the form of a servant, willing to have no rights of his own, no home of his own, no possessions of his own, willing to let men revile him and not revile again, willing to let men tread on him and not retaliate or defend himself. We see him broken as he meekly goes to Calvary to become men's scapegoat by bearing their sins in his own body on the tree. "

"Those who have been in tropical lands tell us that there is a big difference between a snake and a worm when you try to strike at them. The snake rears itself up, hisses, and trys to strike back...a true picture of self. But a worm offers no resistence, it allows you to do what you like with it, kick it or squash it under your heel...a picture of true brokeness."

"Christ now calls us to take our rightful place as worms for him."

"But dying to self is not a thing we do once for all. There may be initial dying when God first shows us these things, but ever after, it will be a constant dying, for only so can the Lord Jesus be revealed constantly through us. All day long the choice will be before us in a thousand ways. It will mean a constant yielding to those around us, for our yieldedness to God is measured by our yieldedness to man. Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us, is God's way of breaking us, so that there is a yet deeper channel in us for the Life of Christ."

"You see, the only life that pleases God, and that can be victorious, is His life...never our life, no matter how hard we try. But inasmuch as our self-centered life is the exact opposite to his, we can never be filled with his life, unless we are prepared for God to bring our life constantly to death. And in that we must co-operate by our moral choice." But if our life is not broken, then we have no need of his life, therefore resulting in never pleasing the one who dies for us. 

 Jesus is our Saviour

Jesus is our Saviour

Our redeemer, and our friend.

He's with us in our trials, 

He's with us till the end. 

Sometimes, in order to try us, 

Hardships our way he sends. 

He lets them batter and break us, 

Until his way we bend. 

But it is not without comfort, 

For with his love, our way does send, 

Sleep for the sleepless nights, 

And strenth and peace to us he lends. 

Sometimes my heart does wish

That hardships I wouldn't know. 

But then I remember if that were true,

Then in his grace I wouldn't grow. 

You think you know best???

 My Dad and I were moving stock today with my sisters dog. Her dog is usually obedient, but sometimes he gets overly excited and will forget that he has a master to listen to. Well, today was one of those days he forgot about my Dad, and decided that he wanted to round up the calves his way instead of my Dad’s way. After the the dog had caused both my Dad and I frustration, my dad turned to me and said: He’s a good dog, but sometimes he thinks he knows best instead of me! 

Wow!! I know he was referring to the dog, but I couldn’t help but think of myself. How often I think I know what’s best instead of God. I listen to a song based on the verse that says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says that Lord.” And it’s sooo true. Often my ways are not the right way. They’re not God’s ways. And often I try my own way, only to realise how foolish I was. God’s ways are soo much higher than mine. I need to listen to him when he tells me to do something, and not be like our naughty dog who doesn’t listen. 

Who will you talk to?

 Today was not my day. It started early this morning with getting all my horses in and waiting an hour for the vet to show up. And then when the vet did come, they decided not to do the procedure. And then to make my morning worse, the heat was almost unbearable. I was sweating head to foot. My hair was oily, and my whole body was sticky. So after walking home, i decided to take a shower before heading into town to get some items for work. But when I got home the power was out, which meant I had to go to town stinky and sticky. So I am walking around town, sweaty, stinky, and sticky, and my ankle is hurting, and I'm running around trying to get all the jobs done. And then someone reminded me as i was about to leave town, of my parents anniversary tomorrow. So I ran around a shop that I thought would have the present I needed, but it didn't. So in a super grumpy mood, I purchased my items and stalked out of the shop, trying to hurry in time to go to one last shop. As I was hurrying to my car, this man stood in my way. Me thinking he was a creep, tried to go around him. Then I saw that he had some books and was obviously trying to get my attention to talk to me about them. "Great!! Now I have to try and talk my way out of a religious conversation with a Mormon or JW." I thought to myself, shaking my head at the man, trying to  indicate that I didn't want to talk. But he persisted, and I remembered someone saying that you should be kind to these people as they usually dont receive a lot of kindness.  So with my arm full of stuff, and sweating so bad because of the heat, I angrily turned around at him and tried to act interested. Turns out the guy was training to be a Monk, and was trying to raise money by giving away books, that held the secret to gaining good characteristics, for a gold coin donation. After explaining that I was a Christian and I told him how to get to Heaven, I then went on to tell him that I was in a big hurry to go. Walking back to my car, I felt guilty about being so rude, and so I gave a tract to one of his friends and asked him to give it to him. 

As I drove away, I suddenly became aware of my extremely rude attitude to someone who was lost and going to hell. I had told myself that I was far to busy to help him. How wrong my attitude was. How could I be too busy to help him? How could I be soo selfish to not stop and help him. Help him find the way to Heaven. 

I thought about this illustration. 

You are in a big room with a lot of people, and theres only one door and its locked. And someone is coming to set the room on fire, and everyone is trying to find the key to the door. Say you figure out where the key is and you've unlocked the door, wouldn't you tell everyone that the door is open and they can go through also, or would you quietly slip out and leave them searching for the key?  Surely you wouldn't be to busy to save a persons life? 

I was very convicted over these words. But they are so true!! We often are in such a hurry, that we do forget about the people around us. We forget to show them the unlocked door so they can escape hellfire. 

What are you doing about the lost souls around you?

I hope and pray that I may be more aware of them, and try to help them with God's help. 

Entrust your soul to a faithful Creator.

 1 Peter 4:19 says, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” 

1 Peter 4 talks a little bit about serving and doing good even if we get mocked or suffer for it. And that verse 19 says that when we are doing good and suffering for it, we need to entrust our souls to a FAITHFUL creator. 

Entrust means to assign someone the responsibility of something. We are to assign the responsibility of our soul to our faithful creator, and he who promised is Faithful. And he, our faithful creator, has promised to give us strength. 1 Peter 4:11 says, “…whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies,” We get given the strength we need to serve and do good, even tho we suffer for it. 

So the next time you’re tempted to complain about the suffering, or give up doing good, stop and remember to  assign the responsibility of your soul to your Faithful Creator. 

Remembering the past!

 Recently I started training horses, and something I’ve learned Is that horses are very similar to people. They have to learn a lot of the same lessons as us. So something that I saw today is that you have to remind your horse of everything it’s learned. One of my horses came to me well trained, yet when I didn’t remind him of what he had learned, He became very pushy and naughty. Today I was getting him to back up, which is something he used to know and do very well, and he wouldn’t do it. And soo I had to remind him of what he was supposed to be doing. I realised that if I wanted him to be a safe and obedient horse, then I needed to remind him every day of what he had learned. And the same is with us. So often we forget what we’ve learned. And then we get upset when God reminds us of what we’ve learnt. One example of this would be when I first lost my job, and I really learned that Jesus was my provider. And then 2 months later, i had forgotten that fact, and I was worrying about what I would do to provide for myself, and I had to be reminded again of the fact that the Lord is my provider. Often we need to be reminded in order for us to remember what the Lord has taught us. And we can’t get bitter and upset when we are reminded. We need to be thankful when we remember what we have learned. When my horse forgets what he’s learned, he becomes disobedient and stubborn. I’m doing him good by reminding him. And yes, sometimes I have to take him back to the start and remind him again of even the most basic lessons, but it’s for his good. And it’s for our good when God takes us back to the start and reminds us of what we have learned. 

He will carry you

 https://youtu.be/xp4sb7lbhME

A link to a song I love 

Taking time out during the business

 Christmas time for me got real busy. It seemed like wherever I turned there was something to do it somewhere to be. I went from one place to the other, not stopping to get a breath. 

Have you felt like that? Especially during the holiday seasons? You run from here to there, not stopping long enough to breathe or talk to God?? 

What does the Bible say about this? 

Exodus 14:13: Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

1 Peter 3:4: But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Psalm 46:10: Be still, and know that I am God:I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

These are just a few verses about being quiet in your heart, and standing still before God. That’s where he wants us. In a still and quiet place where we can see God working and moving. And where we can talk to him. When we are busy running around, we forget God’s goodness and faithfulness. When we are quiet and still before him, we can see him moving and we remember. 

Let’s remember to take time out for Christ. Remember he is your creator and friend. Make an effort to stop during the business and thank God, and remember his faithfulness. 

Going beyond the waves.

 the 

I was at the beach recently paddling. I only had one pair of clothes and I was wearing them, so I didn’t want to get them wet. So I tried hard to not let the waves hit me as they made their way to where I was standing and break. The longer I stood there, the more rough the waves became, and the more wet my clothes got. So I walked a bit farther and went beyond where the waves broke. And it was calm and I didn’t get my clothes wet. It reminded me of how often times in the life we are content to stay at the edge of the sea. We hope to miss the rough waves of pain and disappointment. But the more we wait at the edge, the more rough those waves get. Yet if we were to brave the waves and walk further into our father’s arms, all would be calm. We would be safe. Yet even tho I was standing where the waves couldnt break on me, they still had to pass me by, yet because I was far away from their breaking place, the waves were not as rough. 

If we rest in our father’s arms, the waves of life will still pass us by, yet they won’t be as tough because our Heavenly Father is holding us. 

You are wonderful

You are wonderful, fulfilling my wildest dreams.         You are there for me, helping me fight back the devil’s ugly schemes. You bring me verses for me to recall. You pick me up when I fall. You are my all in all. 

You’re the Alpha and Omega, the mighty one. You’re counsellor, comforter, God’s only son. You loved me, and gave yourself for me, and died upon a tree. 

You took my sin upon yourself. You suffered the shame and the scorn for my eternal house. You offer forgiveness through your blood. You canceled my debt, and your blessings well over me like a flood. 

Only one life

 

What God has promised

 God did not promise that we would have a smooth path to walk on.  He did not promise that it would be straight with no twists or turns. God did not promise that rain would stop falling, the wind cease from howling, and the waves stop tossing. 

Instead he promised strength for every hill, endurance for every wave, wisdom for every twist, and courage for every breath of wind 

Our firm foundation

 I love the song ‘How Firm a Foundation.’ It contains a few of my most favourite verses. But the end verse really speaks to me every day. I often sing the last verse on my way to work. 

“That soul that on soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul though all hell should endeavour to shake, I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.” 

I’m so thankful that God is looking out for me, and that he will never ever leave me, or forsake me! 

Giving our weakness to God!

 

Your attitude is your choice.

A few days ago, I listened to a sermon about our attitude. Something that really stood out to me was this phrase, “your attitude is your choice!” I sorta laughed when I heard that. Like really?? My attitude is based on my surroundings. If work is going horrid, then so will my attitude. If it’s going well, then so will my attitude. Well I was quite convicted by this message, cause if what he said was true, then I was off course with my attitude. So I said to myself, well if it’s true, then I’m certainly going to try it out. So I tried it out. As I go to work in the mornings, I normally pray the whole way there. So this Friday morning, after a week off work, I said to God: everything in me doesn’t want to be here. I want to be at home. And I just know that when I walk into work things will quickly turn hard and I’ll have a bad attitude. So I’m gonna choose to have a good attitude right now for the rest of the day. Please help to remember my choice, and please work it thru me. 

That day was an amazing day. Sure things went wrong. But the Lord helped me keep the right attitude. And me and my workmate actually got along really well. 

But you can’t have a good attitude if your grumpy. You’ll never choose the right attitude if you’re not thankful. But if it’s hard you’re not gonna automatically think of your blessings. Soo I realised if I’m gonna choose the right attitude then I’m gonna have to “give thanks in all things.” Giving thanks is vital in choosing a good attitude. 

Your attitude makes or breaks your day. And it also makes or breaks your workmates day, or the people around you. You have a bad attitude, then the people around you will start choosing that attitude to. You gave a cheerful attitude, then those around you will choose to be cheerful to. 

Joseph had a good attitude even in the toughest times. But he had to make a conscious choice every single day   He chose to see God’s way instead of his own way. He said, “ what you meant for evil, God  meant for good.” He chose to see life through God’s eyes. And he chose his attitude. 

Your attitude does not depend on your circumstances or your feelings. It depends on you!!!

Matthew 20

                             Matthew 20:28-31

Here Jesus is telling a parable of a father and two sons. He goes to the first son and asks him to go work in the vineyard for the day. The son strongly replies "no!!" and keeps at what he is doing. But afterwards he repents of his actions and goes and does what he is told. The father goes to his next son and asks him the same thing. The son cheerfully replies "yes father," and goes about his business, not doing what his father asked him to do. After Jesus finishes this parable, he then asks the question "which of the two did the will of his father?" The answer is plain and obvious. The first son.

As I read it I kinda laughed. I had this picture in my head of what took place. 

Here it is:

"Hey Samuel, today can you work on the east side of the vineyard please?" The father asked.          "Naw Dad!!! I was gonna do something else today!! No, I can't work in the vineyard today!!" So the father, disheartened at Samuel's attitude, goes to the next son.
"Hey son, I'm gonna need you today. The east side of the vineyard needs doing. Lets start at 9!!" "Yes, absolutely, Dad!! I'll be glad to come." Jordon cheerfully replies. But come 9am, Jordon is nowhere to be seen. The father can only see Samuel, head hanging, walking towards him. Once Samuel gets to his father, he lifts up his head and says, "I'm sorry, Dad, for speaking like that to you today. Please forgive me. I am here at your disposal." And the father wraps his arms around his son and says, "I'm glad son!!! Because I only have your best interests at heart!! I have got your future in my mind. I'm teaching you how to work!!" 

How often we are like these sons. We happily say to God, "Here am I, send me!!" Yet when the time comes, we don't show up. We are nowhere to be seen. Or God gives us a job, and we stubbornly shake our heads and say "No way, Lord!!" Let's remember the words of Jesus in the garden when he was praying to his father in Heaven. He asked that this cup might be taken from him. But then he said, "Your will be done!" We need to say that to when God gives us a job to do. Of course it won't be easy. But remember that when God takes you to it, he'll also take you through it!!! 

Who we were…

Masks!!!

 Over in NZ we are in lockdown again. And it’s also mandatory to wear masks now when going to an open business or when your working. So today I wore a mask all day. This was probably the very first time I’ve ever worn a mask. I didn’t even know how to put it on. With the help of my workmate, I finally got it on and sitting properly. But it was so hot, itchy, and it kept falling down. I really didn’t enjoy wearing it, and I counted down the mins till I could go home and take it off. But we wore them because thats what was required of us, and we tried to do it without complaining. 

It reminds me of the Christian life in a way. We are to be separate from the world and we are to put on the new man. And Jesus Christ helps us put him on.  Sometimes it’s not always easy. We don’t always enjoy it. Sometimes you wish you could just give up and take it off. But we need to put on the new self without complaining or arguing, because that’s what Jesus requires of us. 

Remember, If God requires something of you, he gives you the means to supply it.