Daniel 1:8 – “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king’s delicacies or with the wine he was drinking…”

As I prayed, read, and pondered the Word of God today, a theme or thought kept surfacing in my consciousness.  That was Total Surrender and its reward.   In Daniel 1:8, we read, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king’s delicacies or with the wine he was drinking…” Resolved is more than a thought; it is a fixed determination.

The three Hebrew children made that same determination regarding worshipping anything but God.  In Daniel 3:16-18, they made it clear that God was their hope and held their total allegiance.  They informed the king, “God can deliver us, BUT even if He doesn’t, we won’t bow to the idol.  If we bend, we burn, but if we resolve not to bend, we won’t burn.”   Esther said, “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16).

God’s promise is not to deliver us from difficulty but to be with us in it!  The promise is NEVER to leave or abandon us.   If we are not resolute in our resolve to totally surrender to Him, we will grow weary in trial and lose our hope and confidence.  That makes us an easy target for the devil.   However, if we are rock solid in our resolve with the mindset that whether we are delivered or taken home, we will not compromise our commitment to God, we will be empowered to stand and see the salvation of God.

Victory is in total surrender and resolve not to bend, bow, or cast away our confidence in God.  The fire cannot burn us.   The waves cannot drown us.   The enemy cannot defeat us.   Not if we are resolute in our resolve to stand true!  If we make that commitment, God gives us the grace to become and be as He is in the now!

Expect your victory today!   Lord, help us to be resolute in our commitment and confidence in You!

Ecclesiastes 10:18 – “By laziness, the rafters sag, and by idle hands, the house leaks.”

As I read, prayed, and meditated upon the Word of God, the words surrender, and commitment kept echoing in my heart and mind.

Ecclesiastes 10:18 is an interesting verse.  Let’s ask a question before we relegate that entirely to the natural.   How does laziness cause the rafters of a house to sag?  The rafters are rafters and being industrious or lazy does not alter their physical properties, does it? If we were talking solely natural, no!

Sagging rafters and leaky roofs?  Let me share what the Holy Spirit prompted me to contemplate.   We must constantly address areas of potential weakness and moral failure in our spiritual lives.   The rafters hold our covering in place.  If the support system fails or becomes weak, the strain in the structure will become leaky, and all in the house will be affected.

The umbrella or roof of protection (our intimacy with Jesus through the Holy Spirit) requires continuous maintenance – prayer, fellowship with Him, spiritual nourishment, and obedience to His Word.

Our lives are spiritual houses, and we are living stones.   We are living organisms, not fixed inordinate structures.   Therefore, if we become lazy, we allow our support system to weaken and sag, which causes our roofs (covering) to develop holes, allowing the enemy to penetrate.

Ecclesiastes 11:3-4 – “If the clouds are full, they empty out rain on the earth.”  What we are filled with, we give out.  If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will overflow and impact others.  If our covering is secure, we can release what we have freely without spending an inordinate amount of time and energy dealing with the evil that penetrated our leaky roofs.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 – “In the morning (before anything else) sow your seed (prayer), and in the evening do not let your hand be idle (begin and end the day in God’s presence), for you do not know if this or that will succeed (we don’t know what tomorrow holds, God does), or if both will prosper together.”

Ecclesiastes 9:10 – urges us to commit fully through complete surrender – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength…”   What God directs requires our full investment.  What is most important to us will be pursued by us the most.  What we invest ourselves in reveals (exposes) our view of God and life.

No more sagging rafters and leaky roofs.  We have the strength of the Holy Spirit, the Wisdom of God, and the grace of Jesus.  We are being continually transformed.

Do not allow your rafters to sag through laziness.  Be diligent in the spirit and fully surrender to God!

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11  – “I did not restrain myself from getting whatever I wanted; I did not deny myself anything that would bring me pleasure.  So all my accomplishments gave me joy; this was my reward for all my effort.  11 Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it, I concluded: “All these achievements and possessions are ultimately profitless— like chasing the wind!  There is nothing gained from them on earth.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word, the eyes of my heart began to catch a glimpse of life, God’s way.   In Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Solomon exposed a truth needed in every generation.    Possessions, position, and pleasure are empty without God.   He described it as “chasing after the wind.”   In verses 24-26, he emphasized that reality.

In those verses is a revelation of how deeply God loves His followers and how intricate His plan of provision is.  “For to the one who pleases Him, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy…”   Think about that.   Are you enjoying those qualities?   The pathway to them is obedience, trust, and love.   He continues, “But to the sinner (disobedient) He gives the task of gathering and accumulating wealth to give it to the one who pleases God.”

Did you hear that?  The life assignment of the sinner (disobedient) is to gain wealth to give to the followers of God.   My God shall supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory.   One of His channels of provision is in the hands of the sinners, and their assignment is to give it to the followers of God.  Everything belongs to God, Everything!

God owns it all, and according to the Scriptures, when we are born again, we become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Matthew 12:50, Jesus said, “When you obey My heavenly Father, that makes you a part of My true family.”

We have no lack in Him.  He sent birds to feed Elijah.  He sent a fish to provide Peter with tax money.  He sent Manna for Israel in the wilderness.  He gave water from the rock to Israel in the desert.  He causes people to give to us as needed and in response to our giving (obedience).   We do not earn anything, but He keeps His Promises. What do you need that you don’t have?  If we have Jesus, we lack nothing!

Matthew 11:28-29 reveals the pathway to victory and provision – “Simply join your life to Mine. Learn My Ways… You will find refreshment and rest in Me.”

In Him, we have all we could ever need whenever we need it. The only questions are, do we believe it, and do we expect to receive it? God does not lie! Embrace His Promises and enter His abundant life today!

Today is a beautiful day to embrace God’s Promises, Person, and Provisions. Have a fantastic and victorious day!

Matthew 6:5 – “Whenever you pray, be sincere…”

As I read, prayed, and mused on the Word, Matthew 6 became my focus.   There is more to unpack that space will allow.  However, some key principles need to be highlighted.

Interestingly, Jesus begins His instructions by saying, “Examine your motives…”   What a way to begin.   What is the real reason we do what we do?   That led to His discourse on prayer.   Effective prayer can only flow from a pure heart guided by right motives.   If the motives are selfish, the heart will be divided, deceived, and ineffective in prayer.

Matthew 6:5 – “Whenever you pray, be sincere…”   The reality that He needed to make that statement reveals how full human hearts are with insincerity and selfishness.  

Effective, genuine, God-inspired prayer requires sincerity and demands that we get alone with God.   It demands that we go to our innermost chamber (place and condition).  Just talk to God!

The model prayer begins with recognizing God and allowing Him to occupy the throne of our lives.    Then, with a consciousness of Him, we move to an awareness of His manifest presence, where we acknowledge Him as our source.

In that position and condition, we realize forgiveness’s power, purpose, and requirement.  Forgiveness is a two-way street – from us to others and from God to us.  It is a round trip or no trip at all.

Then, we are in a mindset and positioned to receive Psalm 91 as our personal promise.  That brings us back full circle to God.  He is first, last, and everything in between.  He is God!

He continues with emphasis on forgiveness!  Hate has no place!   Then, in verse 21, He gives the clincher: “For your heart will ALWAYS pursue what you esteem as your treasure.”    If God is most important to us, His revelation light fills us.  Unclouded and undivided hearts have a continual flow of God’s light!

He used that foundation as the basis for His declaration in verses 25-33.   We have nothing to worry about if God is God to us as Savior and Lord.   Our provision is Him, and in Him, there is no lack.   Let’s make the process the guide of our daily lives.

Lord, keep our motives pure, and our hearts overflow with love!

Job 42:7-8 – “After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has. ⁸ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

Today, as I read, prayed, and mused on the Word, something exploded in my spirit, heart, and mind. I perceived it as a warning and opportunity.   The Book of Job concludes with God chastising Job before restoring him. But it also contains a revelation and warning for everyone, not just Job’s “comforters.”

Job 42:7-8 arrested me.    God spoke to the chief spokesman of the three and informed them of his intense disfavor over their words!   Think about that for a moment. God said, “You have not spoken about Me what is right.”

Remember how they judged Job and deemed the trouble he was experiencing as God’s disfavor and punishment?  That angered God. Do we do that today?   I hear people saying God sent things to teach them a lesson or to punish them.   Did He?   He could, and He might, but just because calamity falls on someone does not mean God’s judgment has come to them.

If the Atonement is what the Bible reveals, the view of Job’s “comforters” would have God working against Himself.    Jesus shed His blood to save us.   Jesus bore the stripes to heal us.  Don’t misunderstand; God does chastise us, but the simple fact of troubles is not evidence of His disfavor or judgment.

A second passage that stopped me in my tracks and is connected was Matthew 5:22b – “And whoever calls down curses upon a fellow believer is in danger of being sent to a fiery hell.”

It is one thing to identify heresy biblically.  I said biblically. Unfortunately, often, that designation comes for a sectarian interpretation of scripture rather than the whole counsel of God.  Even though the person labeled heretical believes in Jesus and the Atonement, the differences in theology are used to label someone a heretic.  

I may not agree with some of their doctrinal beliefs.  However, I am not God.  I don’t know everything, but I’m continually learning.  They profess Jesus as Lord and demonstrate love for others.  I am fully authorized, biblically, to teach a doctrine different from theirs, but I do not have to curse them with my characterization of them as a heretic.

You may disagree, but this happened to me many years ago.  I had been critical of some well-known ministers because I had doctrinal differences with them. I was praying and stewing over what I considered excesses, and the Holy Spirit said, “If you will actually listen to what they say, you will find more to applaud than to criticize.”   

I knew that I had been taken to the spiritual woodshed.  On the essentials, I stand firm.  The remaining things I put in God’s hands.  I will pray for those I believe are errant, but I also pray for me – What if I’m wrong?  I pray for understanding, wisdom, and grace, and seek always to demonstrate love.  I never want to be guilty of saying things about God that are not true or calling curses upon other believers.  I need mercy and desire to be merciful. I pray for God’s continued correction in our lives.

There is victory in having the heart of God!

Lord, help us be loving and corrective but not judgmental.  Please help us to be comforters and restorers, not criticizers who divide.