When Life Knocks You Down

The Book of Esther

When Life Knocks You Down

                We all have problems in our life. There is no exception to this rule. We carry pain and issues from our past as well as current struggles. There is no denying that life can be hard and painful. If you look around the world it is clearly evident. There really is no one either that has the same problem, every situation is unique. There is something that I really hope touches your heart this morning and it is found in the book of Esther, actually, it is found in probably every book of the Bible.

                Esther had a really hard life. She was a minority in a kingdom that displaced her people. She was an orphan who lost her father and mother at a very young age.  That means she had no father or mother figure at all. She was raised by her cousin. She had a lot of pain in her life, yet she did something that is truly inspiring. She overcame them. She was so disadvantaged that it would be easy for her to go through life sulking and blaming people for her problems. The funny thing is that she ended up being queen of Persia and even saved her people from genocide.

                Esther is not the only one that had a hard life. Moses ran away from Egypt and lived in a desert for 40 years, Joseph went from a loved son to a slave then became a prisoner, Ruth lost her husband at a young age, and Jesus faced the suffering of the world because he loves you. They all had adversity and troubles into their lives yet they overcame them. Actually, God used all of them to help people. God helped them overcome their impossible odds.

                I want to encourage you this morning to get up and stop sulking. Stop blaming or resenting people because of the situation you are in. When you do that, you don’t allow God to work in your life. The world begins to revolve around you. You cry “Oh woe is me!” I know life is tough, and I understand that the situations from your past and present are something that I probably can never know. I know you are hurting and stressed, but if you let that keep you down, you bar God from being able to use you. There are a lot of Christians who have overcome diversity and now they help others in tough situations. I struggled with abuse and depression, but God helped me overcome that and now I can help others.

                What if all those people in the Bible did not overcome their adversity? What if Esther just stayed a depressed little orphan? What would happen? Well many Jews would have been destroyed. What about Moses? If he did not overcome his adversities Israel would be slaves for a much longer time. What about Jesus? Well we all know that answer. If I sat and sulked about life and not overcome my challenges, I would be a completely different person then I am now. I would not be a Christian and probably be doing a lot of Drugs. I would probably not be in school. I would not be writing this to you. We all have a purpose and if we let our trials keep us down, then we become very tough to use. It’s time to get up and fight the good fight.

2^nd Corinthians 1:4

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Surprise!

Mathew 8:10

                Have you ever had a surprise party before? That is something everyone should experience, maybe not a party per se, but definitely a surprise of some sort. When a person is surprised they are completely taken un guarded.  Many of the greatest generals in history used surprise tactics to win a war or gain territory.

                There is an interesting verse that I never picked up on until now. In Mathew 8:10, it says that Jesus was taken by surprise at someone’s faith. This guy was a military officer and he surprised Jesus. He surpassed Jesus’s expectations, what he did was unexpected by the Son of God. How powerful is that? How cool is that? Maybe you are reading this today and your reply is: “So what?”

                Let me try to put it in better perspective for you. Imagine if you did something that surprised God. This guy in Mathew 8 had so much faith in Jesus. The bible does not state why he had all this faith, but it took Jesus by surprise that he did. Jesus even said that there is no man in Israel with this amount of faith. Wouldn’t it be cool to surprise God in some area? I used to do this servant program in Virginia called Doulous. We would pay these people to put us to work and teach us how to serve others. When I would serve, there would be a peculiar result. Every time I helped someone, it would seem that the next day God would out do me. He would serve me or my friends in an even better way. For example, one week we served a church and really gave it all. That week I cleaned out a septic tank, toilets, cut weeds, etc. I thought I was doing well for God. Then at the end of the week, God would show up in our group and outdid our actions. One time he encouraged the pastors of the church we were helping to come wash our feet. THE PASTORS of the church came to wash our feet.  The whole week we were sweating and smelly! Everyone in my group was crying out their eyes because they knew it was all God. I was not crying but laughing. I just found it funny that no matter how hard I tried, God always out did me. I could not surprise him.

                What I want to challenge you with today is to try to surprise God. Do something that you would never do for God. Maybe you should suddenly rent a pressure cleaner and hose down your neighbor’s house? It sounds like a cheesy experiment because it seems like God knows all anyway. This little game is something that I played and honestly it was really fun. It was also cool to see God’s reaction to it. So I dare you, try to surprise God. Let’s see if you can do better than me.

God Knows

God Knows

                Have you ever been so stressed or in turmoil that words just can’t seem to explain it all? It’s like the only sounds that come out of your mouth are groans. Sometimes you can’t really explain it to yourself let alone to others, and at times you can’t even pray. Life is tough at times, and there are moments in our lives when obstacles seem overwhelming. Like when you exercise and you exert yourself so much that you begin to groan. Problems can do the same thing. They can be so difficult that you can’t really explain them, but you just know how hard it is. How do you put in words the feelings of depression or loss? How do you explain hurt. Sometimes you can’t describe the crisis you find yourself in.

Today I just want to encourage those people. See, God knows. In Mathew 6:5-14 Jesus talks about praying. He tells the people not to pray these super long prayers to get attention. He tells them to do it in private between themselves and God. In vs. 8 Jesus state “…Your father knows what you need before you ask”   So be encouraged. When you don’t know what to do or even say remember that God knows and understands. He will help you and comfort you.

Have you ever been hungry and someone fed you without you having to ask? How you ever had so much work to do then suddenly a coworker offered to take some of that load? Do you remember how relieving that is? It is such a blessing when people help you. How much more of a blessing is it when God does the same thing? So take courage, when you can’t describe the situation you are in, remember that you are not alone and God knows. I want to leave you to meditate on this verse. It brings everything in perspective. 

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Romans 8:26-27

Pigeons and Worrying

Pigeons and worrying

Matt 6:25-34

                I think everyone has an animal that they can’t stand. Some look at cockroaches and get so mad, while others take out fierce vengeance on ants. Personally, I can’t stand pigeons. They are disgusting creatures and are like aerial vermin. They find a place and nest for an eternity. Well I mean they might die off but their off spring will keep the nest going and going and going. The worst part is they poop all in the same area. I work at a church and we USED to have pigeons; it was very hectic. They would make huge piles of poop and there was only one guy that would clean it up…. Me.  It was a pain. I would have to get a bucket of water and get a brush to scrape off the hard feces off the pavement. The water would turn all green and white and it just looked nasty and then I would need to wash off that area.  One day, someone got fed up with them (don’t worry it was not me) and made them disappear.  There were a lot of them like 16 and overnight someone took care of my pooping problem.

                Anyway, there is a point to the pigeons. In Mathew 6:26 a verse states “Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?”  I know everyone has heard about not worrying, but some people just need to be reminded and encouraged. I’m personally glad that God does not treat me like that “someone” treated the pigeons at my church. No, he takes care of the birds every day and he promises me the same thing. He promises you that also. We have so much more value than a pigeon, yet God still takes care of them. If he does that, how much more will he take care of you? There is only one thing that God tells us to really focus on and that is to “…put God’s work first and do what he wants, Then other things will be yours as well” (vs. 33)

                The readers (though not a lot of readers) of this little daily bread may have tons to worry about. Some might have huge tests while others have huge ministry concerns. Whatever the case may be we should not worry. What is the point to worrying? Seriously ask yourself that. That same chapter has another awesome verse: “Can worry make you live longer?” (vs. 27). That is an extremely short verse yet it is really true. There is no real point to worrying; it only brings and medication. Anyway, I hope this encouraged you to not worry. I leave you with the last verse of the chapter which is self-explanatory: “Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.”

Repentance

Mathew 3:5-10

I wonder something about the reader while they are viewing this devotional. If you are reading this in the morning is there something that you did yesterday that you regret? If you are reading this at night, how was your day earlier? Did you happen to lie to someone about certain truths or maybe you fell into the trap of laziness. I know a lot of people, like me, fall into the latter.

“You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? Do something to show that you have really given up your sins. And don’t start telling yourselves that you belong to Abraham…an ax is ready to cut down the trees at their roots. Any tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire” (3:7-10)

                This is a heavy verse from John the Baptist. He is talking to the religious leaders of his day who were getting baptized by him. He called them snakes, which if compared to today would be like cussing someone out. Why did he do this? The answer is that baptism represented repentance and he charged the religious leaders that they needed to start actually proving that they have given up their sins. In other words, they need to stop doing them. See the religious leaders clinged to the title of Children of Abraham. I guess they thought that this was enough. Hmmmm what do you think?

                What if I was to tell you the same thing? What if I was to call you out and cuss at you telling you to truly repent? There is no doubt that we all do wrong; however, do you truly repent for it? In my times of laziness where I forget about spending time with God or I even ignore him, I will tell him that I am sorry but I will still continue to do it. If a compulsive liar told you that he was sorry for lying yet continued to do it, would you believe him? If an ax murderer said that he was sorry for killing people and yet he kept killing, would you believe him? The answer is no. We ask God for forgiveness but a lot of the times we don’t turn from our wrongs. Why is that? In my opinion, we are not running from judgment like the religious leaders, we are running from the conviction that our sins bring. We go to God to feel better and then we continue to do the something repeatedly. Some of us cling on to the title of being a Christian thinking that this title saves us. Like it gives us a free pass to do whatever.  Well I hate to break it to those people that the title Christian has no power of saving. It's the faith in Jesus that saves us.

                I just wanted to challenge you to really repent when you ask for forgiveness. It’s not easy; quite the contrary, it is quite hard. We will most likely fall again and again, but it is the effort that makes a difference. God wants to see us fight to become more like him. He wants us to strive to be better people. He wants us to bear that good fruit. If we don’t, then we are in danger of being cut down. I don’t know what that means but it doesn’t sound good. I just want to encourage you to really repent. God loves you regardless of what you do. Don’t you want to return that love, or do you just want to use him?

Remember

The Book of Habakkuk

                Habakkuk is such a funny sounding name. This guy was another prophet of the OT. He told God that his nation was lawless and needed punishment. Criminals were ravaging the righteous and lawlessness was rampant. He wanted God to intervene. When God told him how he would send a Heathen army, Habakkuk said it was unfair. The rest of the book, which is only three chapters, is a dialogue between them.

                I wanted to encourage you with something this morning. Habakkuk was on fire for God. He was seeking him out fully. Something that he did was that he remembered what God has done. We Christians tend to forget; that was also Israel’s problem. Israel and Judah kept forgetting what God originally has done. Today, I challenge you to think back and look at what God has done in your life. Set up mental markers. These sign posts will help in times of trouble. Something that always helps me is really trying to remember if God has ever let me down. I know everything else in this world has, but has God? My honest answer is no. God has never let me down. When I doubt, or struggle with life, I remember that. God has always been faithful. The only moments when I feel alone is when I do the self-isolation; consequently, remembering God’s faithfulness really helps me to go through life. Once again, look at your life and see what God has done in it. Hold on to those moments and don’t forget. If you become forgetful, it can lead to a lot of pain and regret; vice versa, remembering can lead to a stronger relationship with God and even deliverance from a situation. 

Its been a while...

                It has been a while since I wrote something in my blog. So now I write. I have been reading a lot in the books of the prophets because I have never read them before. They have a lot to do with Judgment and punishment. Israel sinned and they were feeling the consequences for their sin. In Lamentations the prophet asks why? He asked if it was fair that they were getting beaten this bad. He questioned God and even challenged him. The reply he received was just turn to God.

                See, in every prophet book I have read so far, the key theme is turning back to God. Your life right now might really suck. It might seem like everything around you is falling apart. I encourage you to turn to God. He will lead you; just seek him out. There are others that have this huge burden on your heart for something. I once again encourage you to seek him out, he will provide for you.

                My prayer is that this little reading helped you in some way. I hope that it encouraged you. Just keep seeking out God in your life and don’t forget about him.