0 Keep Stepping: the Same God Who Led You in Will Lead You Out!

You may feel that you are at your end today.  Maybe you’re on your last dime.  Maybe you are saying, “God, I don’t want to work here.”  Or “God, I don’t want to live here.”  Or maybe, “God, I don’t want to go through that.”  Maybe you have waited a long time for your miracle.  Maybe there are things you desire from God and you have waited what seems like forever.

I want to encourage you today to hold firm until the end.  The same God who led you in will lead you out.  The same God who has taken care of you in the past will come through for you again.  He has not changed or lost His power.  Nor has He forgotten you or given up on you.  He will come just in time.  Keep stepping in faith just like Abraham.

Remember how God tested Abraham and instructed him to take his promised child Isaac and sacrifice him on a mountain some distance away.  The Bible states that Abraham, in faith, got up early the next day and set off on the three day journey to the mountain.  Genesis 22:1-4.

God’s plan, however, could not have made any sense to Abraham.  God had promised that through Isaac, Abraham would be made a great nation.  Imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind the entire three day journey.  Imagine how his feelings and emotions and the enemy must have been attacking his mind.  Sometimes reading these stories we forget that these were real people with real feelings, emotions and desires.  Surely Abraham did not want to do what God asked him to do.  Nonetheless, he pushed through his feelings and emotions and kept stepping, trusting in God.  Let’s look at the results of Abraham’s trust in God:

Genesis 22:9-18


9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.  He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 


10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 


11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said.  “Do not do anything to him.  Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”


13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 


14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.  And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” 


15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 


16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 


17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 


18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Note that when Abraham took that step of faith and did what the Lord had instructed, even though it didn’t make sense, God performed a miracle for Abraham:  The right ram, was at the right place, at the right time.  I like to think of it like this: When Abraham was climbing up the mountain on one side, there was a ram climbing up the mountain on the other side.  And even though Abraham couldn’t see the provision, it was coming – with every step of faith that he took – it was coming.  Not only that, but because Abraham trusted God, God promised to bless Abraham even further.  Genesis 22:15-18.

God has no favorites.  It’s the same for you, if you will hold on.  If you keep stepping, in faith, even when you feel like giving up, even when you do not understand why this is happening to you, God will come through for you.  Blessings friends!

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0 Let God's Dreams for You Outweigh Your Circumstances

Today, I want to speak to you about your dreams – those hopes, desires, and plans for your life that God has placed in your heart -- and the circumstances in which you currently find yourself.  Let me ask you, which are you allowing to control your life, your dreams or your current circumstances?  Or put another way, which is bigger in your eyes?  The reason for this post is to encourage you to again refocus your thoughts and energies on what really matters, specifically, what God says about your life and future.

                     

God has promised you many good things, so why are you letting your current circumstances stop you from pursuing all that God made you to be.  Remember, the Bible clearly states that He is faithful and more than able to do what He has promised you.  Remember also that we only see in part.  But God operates seeing the big picture.  He is working on your behalf in ways that you cannot understand, which is why Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and lean not on our own understanding.

 I know that sometimes it is hard to see a good future when so much for so long has been going wrong, but you must stand firm until the end.  You have a part to play in whether God’s future for you manifests.  If you do not believe and walk in step with how He sees your future, you can miss out on His best for you.  God will not make you follow Him.  He will not make you believe.  Will you move forward or stay where you are?  The choice is yours.

Furthermore, Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.”  The word “delight” is defined as “to give pleasure to or be pleasing to.”  Do you find it pleasant when someone keeps asking you why, why, why, when, when, when?  Neither would God as it does not show complete trust in His plan.  Believe and rest in Him knowing that whatever circumstances surround you will not and cannot change the fact that He is faithful and will do what He has promised you.

In short, the secret to victory is not to just have a dream, but to keep the dream alive.  Exalt in your eyes what God has said above what your circumstances seem to dictate.  Do as Mary the mother of Jesus did in the Bible when people kept prophesying that her son one day would be the savior of the world.  For many years she saw no signs of what God promised her, but she saved up the words in her heart and pondered them.  She kept what God had said before her eyes, not her current circumstances.

Lift up your head.  Keep dreaming.  No circumstance is impossible.  The word “impossible” is not even in Gods vocabulary.  “For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment”  Luke 1:37.

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0 Don't Give up on God as He Will Do What He Promised You!

Have you ever found yourself in a place or position where you could not understand what God was doing?  Maybe God has given you a word about your calling and it seems that He is leading you in the opposite direction.  Or maybe God has promised you something, but it is taking a long time or circumstances seem to say it is not likely to happen.  You are not alone.  We have all experienced these times.  I want to encourage you today with something that God showed me not too long ago about His ways that might bring clarity to what He is doing in your life.

God led me to a story in Genesis Chapter 12 regarding Abraham.  Remember, Abraham was just a regular guy who God had asked to leave his home country for a place God promised to give him.  God also promised Abraham that if he would go to this land where God was sending him, God would make him into a great nation, make his name great, and bless him.  (Genesis 12:1-3).  Abraham believed God’s word, stepped out and traveled to that land.  But not long after Abraham entered the land, a severe famine struck and Abraham had to move his family to Egypt – a land far from his promised land.

Now imagine how confusing this could have been to Abraham.  God led Abraham to a specific place and said this is where you will settle, but then Abraham had to leave because of circumstances beyond his control.  Even more, God had promised to bless Abraham.  A famine – having your supply cut off and dried up – does not in any way resemble a blessing.  This could not have made a lot of sense to Abraham.  But you see, this was all part of God’s plan to fulfill the promises He gave to Abraham. 

Before entering Egypt, Abraham instructed his wife Sarah and others to refer to Sarah as his sister and not his wife as he was afraid that the Egyptians would see her and want to kill Abraham to take her as she was beautiful.  (Abraham was not asking them to lie as Sarah was indeed his half-sister.).  Just as Abraham had predicted, the Egyptians noticed Sarah and brought her to the Pharaoh where she was taken into the palace.  As if things could not get any worse for Abraham, he has now lost his wife.  Imagine how confusing this time could have been to Abraham.  You call this blessing God?! 

But again, despite how it looked, it was all part of God’s plan to fulfill His promises to Abraham.  Because of Sarah, the Pharaoh treated Abraham well, and Abraham acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.  In other words, the Pharaoh lavished riches on Abraham.  Shortly after, God allowed a serious diseases to be placed on the Pharaoh and his household because he was holding Abraham’s wife.  As a result, the Pharaoh let Sarah go back to Abraham and allowed them all to leave his country with everything they had.

And then we get to Chapter 13 where the picture of what God was doing becomes clear.  Everything finally makes sense.  Abraham and Sarah return to the land that God had promised them, but now Abraham “had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.”  Genesis 13:2.  God fulfilled His promise to bless Abraham.  It might have happened in a way that Abraham could not have anticipated, but God did it.

For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the LORD, plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

I encourage you today, do not give up on the promise God has given you.  He is working out His plan for your life in a marvelous way.  His ways are not our ways.  His ways are above our ways.  He sees the big picture.  He sees each piece of the puzzle of your life and knows in what order that each must be placed.  He knows what He is doing, and if you will cooperate with Him, trusting Him despite what you see, you will eventually receive what He has promised you.

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0 A Word from God: Delay Is Not Denial

We don’t always know why God does things the way He does them.  We have our own thoughts about how God should answer our prayers.  We have our own ideas about how our lives should unfold.  But the Bible is clear that God's thoughts and ways are above our thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8,9).  We think that we know what is best for us.  We think that we know what we want.  But only God, with understanding and knowledge beyond measure, truly knows.  He knows our hearts.  He knows our deepest desires, even those we don't realize.  He sees the big picture.  He sees all the puzzle pieces and knows exactly how and in what order they must fit together for us to achieve His best.  This is why in Proverbs 3:5 He asks of us: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."  

Let me encourage you this day with a Word from God:

As the rain and the snow
   come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
   without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
   It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10, 11

The way will open.  God does care and His plan will unfold.  Just love and wait upon Him.

What cause have you to fear?  Has He not cared for and protected you in the past?  Keep believing.  Be calm.

Pray and read your Bible so that you may understand His thoughts and His ways better.  The time with Him will strengthen you to keep moving forward, and in the most difficult times, to stay standing.

His plan is still good for you.  His plan has not changed.  Delay is not denial.

You are blessed our friends!

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