Thank God for Being Long-Suffering!

Long-Suffering: Patient; slow; to be slow to anger; tarry long

The Lord does not hasten to punish us, instead He patiently presents us with many opportunities to retrace our evil steps. Our long-suffering Lord is the one who has unlimited patience with His creation (that's us, just in case you were wondering). He’s the one who puts up with us and gives us ample time to use the energy, movements, and powers that He has given us to be used according to His master plan and will. Therefore, He grants us patience and time, again and again.

Our long-suffering Lord wants us to take on His long-suffering nature and to "...walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3).

Let's use the children of Israel as an example of how the Lord is slow to anger: He wanted the children of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation (Exodus 19:6), but what He got was a murmuring and complaining group of people - even after they had seen His miracles and wonders.  Despite all they had seen, they got off track. Regardless, every time they cried out to Him, our long-suffering Lord delivered them.

The Lord suffers long with us because he does not want any of His creations to be lost. In Ezekiel 33:11, the Word tells us that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Our Lord is not some mean God that sits on the throne just waiting to beat us over the head when we do some thing wrong. Instead, our longsuffering Lord takes exquisite pleasure in waiting for us to gain the victory in the fight and to struggle against the temptations that come into our lives (using all of those tools He's already provided us with, of course). What an awesome long-suffering Lord!

Our long-suffering Lord is forever giving patient consideration to our weakness and underdevelopment, because He knows our weaknesses can be brought to greatness if we would simply surrender and willingly be obedient to the merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering Lord. If we would just do that, we can also achieve mature moral development, because the Lord is long-suffering and patiently waiting on us.

With all that said, let the church say amen... and AMEN!

God Wants His Children to be Prosperous!

Prosperous: to be successful; to achieve success

In our day to day lives, we always want God to bless us with this thing or that thing, but how often do we stop and think about what we need to do to receive those blessings? In order for us to get what we want, we have to step out on what God has put in our hearts to do. It's pretty hard to be blessed when we don't put something out there to be blessed. Take for instance, a person with a God-given talent to sing, but doesn't do so. How can the Lord bless their beautiful voice if they don't use it? How can they achieve a successful career in singing if they don't allow God to make it prosperous?

If we want to be blessed, we've got to give the Lord something to bless. Take me for example, I wanted to write blogs and I believed in my heart I could - but if I had not picked up a pen and paper to write, it would still be a desire or a great idea in my mind. Instead, I stepped out of my comfort zone in faith and I gave the Lord something to work with. Now, I may not have completely achieved success, but I have given the Lord something to work with and I have no doubt that He's going to make it prosperous! Have you ever heard the old saying, "if you take one step, God will take two?"

Look at David when he was tending his father's sheep - his sheep were attack by a bear and a lion. David didn't just sit there - no, he took a leap of faith and went after the bear. Because David put action to his faith, God caused him to be successful - He allowed David to take the sheep out of the bear's mouth. Not only was he able to take his sheep, but he successfully killed the bear as well. Now, what if David had just thought that he could protect the flock, but never put forth any effort to do so. It seems pretty reasonable to believe that the bear and that lion would have eaten all his sheep. David's willingness to step out on faith also led to his defeat of Goliath. Here was David - a teenager - and Goliath - a giant - but when David heard him defy the armies of God, he didn't hesitate. I bet it never crossed his mind that he was just a child, nor did he allow what his brother said in 1 Samuel 17:28 (his brother thought that David was coming just to show off), effect him in any way. He knew of his past success and wasn't afraid to give God something else to work with!

That's the way we must be my friends, if we want to be successful in certain areas of our lives. We have got to give God something in or from us to make prosperous. If we want money, we have got to give, because when we give, God has something to work with. He can make it (and us) prosperous and allow it to come back to us. Let's give the Lord something to work with each and every day!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

This is not a Rehearsal!

Rehearsal: a practice exercise

This is not a rehearsal! This is the only practice we get; when God says enough - it's over, there is no second chance. We have all seen performers (actors, singers, dancers, etc.) perform. One of the great things about their jobs is that if they make a mistake, they can typically go back and practice until they perfect whatever it is that they are doing. It's not so with life; on this journey if we fail to make Jesus the Lord of our life, and choose to do our own will instead of living a life that’s pleasing to the Lord... once life is over, there is no returning to this earth to fix things or change things. This is not a rehearsal; we must make every day count.

I can't stress enough the fact that God should be first in our life. It's imperative that we know who the boss is - and just in case you were wondering - it's not us! We owe everything to the Lord, right down to the very air that we breathe; therefore we will have to give an account for how we have lived our lives. We can't be people tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine; we must live and breathe totally within the will of God.

The Lord wants us to enjoy life, He said in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." He wants us to enjoy His beautiful creation and all of the wonderful things He has blessed us with. Of course, we are living in perilous times, but we don't have to become a part of those things, our responsibility is to stand firm on the word of God. If we do fail (and every now and then, we probably will), there is blood to cover every sin - we just need to use it quickly to get back in agreement with God and continue to go forward.

My friends, I say again - this is not a Rehearsal! Revelation 22:12 informs us that His reward is with Him, therefore, once we're gone, we cannot return to this world and fix all the things we should have done years before. All along the way let's encourage ourselves, as well as others, and learn to love others as Jesus loves us.

With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!                     

Remembering the Good!

Remember: to recall, retain, recollect

Good: morally excellent, cheerful

God commanded His people to have certain feasts and certain celebrations. One of the reasons for this was for them to remember all that He had done for them. At different times of the year, they would come together and celebrate how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt (slavery), how He had defeated their enemies, how He feed them in the wilderness, and how He protected them. God required them to remember. He is the same today as He was yesterday, so if he required them to remember, how much more is He requiring the same of us.

In the book of Joshua, God commanded them to leave stones as a memorial, these stones reminded them and their children of specific victories, so every time they would look at those stones, they would remember what God had done for them (Joshua 4:4-6). Like them, we should have something to remind us of what God has done for us. It doesn't have to be stones, of course. It could be something as simple as a journal that we maintain to keep all the many victories that He has done for us fresh in our memories.

God doesn't want us dwelling on the negative things in our past. That mean we can't stay focused on that one time our boss or coworker did us wrong and we can't keep harping on the bad times between us and our spouses. It also means that we can't linger on the occasions when our friends whip or insult us with their tongues. Those are the types of things that we are suppose to forget. Of course, those things are going to come to the surface from time to time, but it's our responsibility to quickly change our thoughts. The reason for this is because whatever we dwell on is what we inevitably bring more of into our lives. So let's remember the good things that happen in our lives - like when God has turned situations around; the days our children were born; and the strength and peace He gave us throughout the difficult times and how He gave us beauty for ashes.

Let's remember our successes, our victories, and all the times we weathered the storms in our life because when we remember the good things we are constantly drawing more good things to us! Keep believing and keep remembering what God has done for us -  He's done it before, He's well able to do it again! God loves you, my friends!!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!