His Sermon was from Revelation 1, John being put on the island of Patmos. He compared it to Alcatraz. We all have our Alcatraz, our tough times we have to go through. He told us the story of losing his son to cancer. Nearly all of us will face an Alcatraz of some type. We were never promised to not have an Alcatraz, but we are promised that Jesus would go through it with us and we will survive. We do win. We do come out on the other side victorious. We may not get the answers to our why’s. We have to give it to God over and over if necessary. satan (no that is not a typo, satan is little and I have come to a conclusion that I am no longer going to consider his name proper even if it is the start of a sentence) uses our Alcatraz to try to steal our joy and we can’t let him do that. We have to keep asking God to fill us. John was in the Spirit on that island with no choir to sing to him, no music to listen to and no one to talk to but God. God came and spoke to him. If we seek God in our car, our work place, our school, etc., we can also hear from God. The Holy Spirit will talk to us in our Alcatraz. We do not have to allow satan to use our Alcatraz to steal our joy. We can’t give up even if we feel like it at times. We can have joy through Jesus Christ no matter what we go through. John didn’t die there. God will be exalted. We should exalt Him and He will work. We can be on the winning side. God is bigger than all our problems and any Alcatraz that we must face. God is good.
Category: Marriage
What Answer Are You Getting From God?
God answers all prayer. He may answer with a yes, no , maybe, later, etc. He always has a reason for doing what He does and not doing what He doesn’t do and His reason is always right. How can someone think they know what is best when God is God and He knows all that has happened and all that will happen. If we are walking close enough to God and listening, we may know specifically what the answer is and may even know why. If we don’t get specific answers, it is still our job to continue to know and believe that God is God and He is making the right decisions.
It may be our fault that we get the answers we get or someone else’s fault that we get the answer we get. The only one we are accountable for is us. We can’t determine what part others play in the situation and we can’t determine what decisions they make. We can walk close enough to God to know what we are to be doing to get a right answer. God will ask us to do certain things. If we are telling Him, “no”, why would He feel obligated to tell us, “yes”? If we disobey, then we are in sin and sin will separate us from God. It is our job to get rid of the sin with a prayer of repentance so that we are no longer separated from God and He can hear our prayer. God may be asking us to do something out of our comfort zone in order to show us what can actually be accomplished if we walk in obedience. God may be asking us to do a simple, beneficial thing like to just walk a little closer to Him. If we aren’t walking with God and we are still asking Him to move in your life, then He is probably asking us to walk with Him and allow Him to guide our steps. If we won’t do what He asks, He is not obligated to do anything on our behalf.
And, Yes, sometimes he does do things on our behalf even when we aren’t being obedient because He loves us even when we aren’t loving Him back.
Good Decisions Or Bad Decisions
Much of our life is determined by the decisions we make.
The type of decisions we make are often based on the ones we have made in the past. If we make good decisions, it is easier to continue down that path of making good decisions. The same goes for bad ones.
If we are going down a path of making bad decisions, it seems to escalate and the results continue to get worse. With bad decisions, it is hard to change directions. If we want to reverse directions, we must be intentional. We need to start doing positive things on purpose. As we choose to make good decisions, it is also true that it will escalate but it will be in a positive directions. The results will continue to get better.
Once we get switched in the right direction, we must continue to train ourselves to choose correctly. If we have made bad decisions in the past and have chosen to get on the correct path, we still need to be on guard that we are not deceived into taking a wrong turn. If not recognized quickly, we can be headed in the wrong direction long enough that it will take more effort to get back. This can happen to any of us no matter what path we have been on in the past so we all need to stay aware of where our decisions are leading.
Our brain needs to be trained and it will usually follow the same path whether good or bad. It is our choice which direction we want our life to be heading. The longer we are on a certain path, the harder it is to change. If we follow a bad decision path, it will take great effort to get switched to the good path. That switch can be painful at times depending on where our bad decisions have taken us. If we follow a good decision path, it will get easier the longer we are on it but we have to continue to be watchful. Most importantly to be aware that we have the ability to fail at any moment. We will never be above making a wrong choice. Keeping God at the center of our life will increase our chances of making good decisions.
God gives us the choice. We will benefit by asking for His help in making our choices.
God Can Get You Through “It”
I went to a Gordon Mote concert. As Gordon took us through a series of songs, it occurred to me how God had a plan in my life that I could have never understood as I began to walk with God. In my late teens, maybe early 20’s, our pianist at our church chose a song for me to sing. It was Through It All. That song resonated with me because it is not easy to be a teen or a young person and not have some struggles. I was thankful at that time for the struggles that God brought me through for I knew I would not be the person I was becoming without the struggles that God allowed. I believe those struggles may be greater today for teens, but I don’t know some say it is the same but it probably depends on our perspective and our experience. That is a long time back to remember but I believe I knew then that no matter what I would face, God would be there to get me through it.
Through It All
As Gordon Mote finished that song, he said he didn’t know what the “it” was in everyone’s life but we all have an “it” that God can bring us through. Some of you know what my “it” is during this season of my life and I would have never expected to be where I am today. Gordon went on later to sing Something Beautiful. We had just sang that song in church the Sunday before and I was thinking how it says that God brings beauty when we bring him our confusion, our brokenness and strife. I think of the confusion we bring to Him when we come to Him for salvation. In the midst of my current confusion, I believe that God can bring beauty from any confusion that we go through while we walk with Him. When I mention confusion, I don’t mean the kind satan throws at us but the confusion of now knowing God’s plan in the situation and what outcome He is striving for or how long it is going to take.
Something Beautiful
I am not sorry for my struggles that God is allowing because I know that I am stronger because of them. One thing I believe I am doing is making Satan sorry for even trying to mess with me and someone that I love. I don’t plan on stopping that mission. I am waiting for the beauty that will come from the confusion that I am currently going through with my “it”. God is good in the midst of anything that comes our way that we may be confused about. We don’t always know what God is doing but we can know that it will be right because God is always right.
Something Good Is About To Happen
Humble yourselves and pray looking to heaven expecting Him to work in your situation.
Praise Him in all things no matter what your current situation. He will get you through it.
I believe the longer and the closer you walk with Christ, the more you will see the fingerprints He has made in your life before you even realized how much He was there with you, even before you were walking with Him. Once you begin walking with Him, you will realize He was there all the time. You will begin to see those fingerprints that you didn’t notice at the time and they will mean more to you than they would have then.
Trust God
5Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3 (NIV)
We need to trust in the Lord with what is going on in our life all the time. It isn’t always about trusting God to do what we ask but to trust Him to do what is right because that will accomplish the most.
Our view of the situation may not be what is best for all that are involved. If we would get our answer the way we wanted, we could be selling ourselves short or selling others short. God may have better plans for us so let’s trust in the Lord to the point of trusting Him to work out the details and bring about the right outcome.
Why would we want to believe what we understand of the situation when God has so much more understanding of what is going on and what the future holds. Let’s lean on what He knows.
Let our ways be His and let Him lead us down the path He has planned. Ask Him to let us know when we are straying off that path that He has planned for us. It is the path that will give us the most we can get out of life. When we wander from the path we miss the blessings that were planned for that time.