Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Pastor Kyle continues, that this is one of the up-side-down principles of Gods kingdom, that I find my worth and value when I lose it in Christ. That my needs and desires get fulfilled when His comes first and mine come after. It is the only path to better and sweeter days ahead because if my desires and fulfillment define the standard of what makes better days then I’ll never reach satisfaction. We think the answer is in scratching the itches of life, but the answer is in letting our desires go and finding fulfillment in God.
Exodus 15:22-25a So, Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were
bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So, he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord
showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
God brings supernatural provision in our current problem(s). Look for God’s provision. We all lose healthy focus when we grumble because of shifted focus on the problem and less directed towards God, who is faithful. Christians, who have been saved from the fires of Hell, can unwittingly make their own lives a living version of it. As the great old Christian Hymn goes: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” We should always be aware of the issues in our life. Denying reality never helps anybody with anything. We shall be aware of the issues in our world and make wise decisions accordingly, but we should never allow doom and gloom to win.
God’s people persevere and are problem-solvers; patient warriors and provision hunters in their current problems. If God sent the provision for your current problem, would you be prepared to receive it? All of us have problems that threaten our livelihood and physical health. Finding God’s provision is more about where we are placing our focus.
Exodus 15:25b-26 There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the
Lord who heals you.”
Pray and obey. God uses whatever we are going through in order to show us the type of disciple that he wants us to be. Start with diligently listen to the voice of God. How do we hear the voice of God? We hear it through prayer, through the Bible, through sermons preached at church, through Christian radio, books and articles, but primarily through the Word of God. Prayer claims our mind and centers of focus on God. Prayer pivots our hearts on His Word and makes us more open to obey. Diligently listen to God and do what is right in His eyes, give an ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes. That is what obedience is all about.
Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
There are ways in every fallen man & woman that seems right to us, but does not jive with God. I believe that this is one of the reasons that our world is in such bad shape. We’ve became a secular pagan society that say: “you do you.” Saying, do what is right in your eye and whatever makes sense to you. If it makes you happy, why would God be against that? Let me tell you that God is so much more concerned about our holiness than our happiness. God wants us to have joy in our life, without sin. Jesus is our Healer doing miracles, but obedience is not doing something for God if God will do something for me in return. Obedience is God is God and I am not. God’s ways are higher than my ways. God’s will be done as it is in Heaven. Trust God’s will.
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
In Christ, Brian
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