Luke 16:10-13, Jesus explains, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of earthly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that earthly wealth which belongs to another whether God or man, and of which you are a trustee, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand devotedly by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon [that is, your earthly possessions or anything else you trust in and rely on instead of God.”
Continuing Pastor Kyle's message, if exclaims that if God cannot trust us in the small things over the long-term, why would God ever entrust us with more here or bless us with eternal things? Why would God bless us with that which we will not entrust Him with? It is crystal-clear that we need to trust God in all the areas of our life. If God cannot trust us with the little that we have, the implications are that God is not going to give us more or enlarge our territory. What is the “little” today in your life that you can honor God with? When we get our “kingdom priorities” straight, that is when the work of God begins to kick in. Some of us need to stop making excuses why we are not trusting God and start trusting Him with everything.
Chart out a plan of how your goals may come to pass within our control, then prepare and pray about them. Take tangible small step towards achieving those goals over the long-run. Each of our Jabez-type prayers are going to look a little bit different. But, be one of the brightest shining light for Christ within your sphere of influence. Always grow in your relationship with Jesus constantly, making an unmistakably imprint on your community with the Great Commission of making disciples of all. Take the little steps to honor God with your life and goals. Expect God to answer your prayers as we diligently produce good works, which God prepared for us beforehand, taking paths which He set, so that we would walk in them, living the good godly life which He prearranged and made ready for us, and seek Him on our part. Honor God as a way of life.
Also, we all need to partner with God in prayer to turn past pain into present purpose. Jabez’s name meaning “born in pain”, but he did not let the pain of his name define the purpose of his present or the position of his future. It is unrealistic to expect God to enlarge our territory and bless us with new things, when we haven’t even healed from the pain of the past. It one thing for us to pray for God to do something , but it is another thing completely to partner with God in prayer to work on healing a wound from the past. All of us would love to have less pain in our lives. We need to do a lot more than pray to work through the pain of our past. We need to partner with God in those prayers to seek the healing that He has for us. Jabez flipped the scrip on the pain of his past. Keep the faith.
Pray specifically, like it all depends upon on God, and hustle like crazy as if it all depends on you. Got a dream, desire or goal, then get down on your knees and pray to God for wisdom and clarity about what you need to do. Pray for blessing, pray for anointing, pray for growth, then repeat. Then get to working on them day-in and day-out, weeks on end, month after month, and year to year. Fall in love with the calling more than the destination. God is about the journey. God is about growing His kingdom and growing our territory in the process. We do the natural; God does the supernatural. “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”
In Christ, Brian
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