Category: Loss of Loved One

Angry at God

Read 2 Samuel 6:1-11

David got angry with God because David thought he was doing a good thing and things did not work out as planned. David’s plan was not a God thing so when God intervened, David got mad. David was afraid of God because of what happened while trying to do what he thought was good. David was celebrating and was devastated by the events that interrupted the celebration.

Many have been in the process of just doing life when it is interrupted by an event or events that just turns our world upside down. When we experience a devastating event in our lives or the lives of our loved ones, our heart can shatter into so many pieces that we don’t even think God is able to put it back together. We can get so emotionally tangled up that we get upset with God and don’t let Him help even when He wants to. Sometimes we refuse to move ahead to restoration just to spite Him.

Our lives have so much potential when we give them to God. If I can be honest, instead of allowing Him to work, we choose to pout. God knows how we feel. He knows our questions and our resentments. He wants to be gracious and restore us to more than we could be on our own. Instead of asking God our questions, we choose to decide for ourselves why something has happened. We get stuck in a rut and can spend years there refusing to come out.

We make a choice everyday to who we allow to work in our lives. We can spend it listening to satan and his lies or we can tell God how we feel and ask Him for His answers. We may or may not get the why’s to what has happened, but we will be told what to do with what has happened. When we can trust God to use what has happened for His glory,  He will give us back ground that has been given to the enemy.

Life in a rut will only get worse. We have a Cross that Christ offers to each and every one of us that can take us so far beyond what we can ask or imagine that we and others will see that it is only through Christ that all we do can be accomplished. It is time to let God get us out of the rut. We decide what our future holds.

When we get past ourselves, God will be able to take us past our past and into a future with a future.

Is God Asking Something Of You?

Proverbs 1:22-24 (MSG)

22-24“Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?

Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?

Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?

About face! I can revise your life.

Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you;

I’m ready to tell you all I know.

As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;

I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.

Is He asking to be your friend?

Is He asking to grow deeper in your relationship with Him?

Why won’t we move?

Why do we just go through the motions?

Do we think we are good enough and good people make it to heaven?

Why don’t we want more of God all the time?

 

We should never get to the point of not wanting more because we will always have room to improve.

What will it take?

  • A good Prayer
  • A good Sermon
  • A good Testimony
  • A Song
  • A Shattered Dream
  • The Death of Someone Close
  • Family Devastation
  • Financial Collapse
  • Marital Problems
  • Serious Illness
  • Serious Accident

What is stopping you?

  • Pride (With pride comes destruction)
  • Arrogance (With a haughty spirit comes a fall)
  • What people will think (Who do you want to please? God or People?
  • Fear of what God may ask you to do (God won’t give you anything that He won’t supply you with what you need)
  • Wanting to stay in your comfy zone (God will be with you through everything)
  • Fear of not having control (If you don’t give God control, who do you think has control?)

Will it be worth it?

What blessings are we giving up because we refuse to be obedient to Christ?

Would it be better to bow out of obedience or to fall on our face in humiliation or out of desperation?

Do we want to bow out of adoration or devastation?

 

We will bow! We can bow now and be blessed or we will bow in disgrace.

Philippians 2:10

 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Being an Overcomer

While the Israelites were en route to the Red Sea, they spoke against God and against Moses. Numbers 21:4-5

God sent snakes and some died. Others went to Moses and rebuked and asked that the snakes would be taken away. Numbers 21:6-7

Moses prayed and God gave instructions to overcome the snakes bites. He did not take the snakes away. Numbers 21:8-9

In Revelation 3:7-13, the message to the Church in Philadelphia and Revelation 3:14-22, the message to the Church in Laodicea are powerful stories of being an over comer and the benefits that are in store for those that endure.

May 2014 be a year of overcoming.

Two great videos for a positive outlook and encouragement. Both are worth watching.


Are You Refusing To Accept Any Free Gifts?

Christmas is a time of gift giving. We buy gifts for those we love whether they deserve them or not. They don’t do specific things to earn them. We just want to make them feel good and want them to know we love them. God offered Christ as a gift to everyone that would believe. He offered His Son freely that we could feel good about who we are and to know that we are loved. It is a gift we don’t deserve. We can do nothing to make ourselves worthy of God’s gift. He wants to give us His Son so that we can benefit from all that He has to offer.

We cannot benefit from the gift’s rewards unless we accept it, open it, and use it as it is intended. We can only feel the love when we have a relationship with the giver and can accept the gift honestly and resolve the things that have kept us at a distance. Christ wants to keep giving and giving. Once Christ is a part of our life and we continue to give Him all our broken pieces, He continues to give to us like we could never have imagined.

Some notes from listening to Dr. James Diehl

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.