Sovereign Intervention

Although this daily bread was for July 8, 2019, it fits perfectly for me today.  One of the amazing things about God’s word is that it is specific to each one of us.  God’s word is so specific and alive to the degree that we can be in the same room and hear the same sermon or read the same words from the Bible and each be given a  God inspired message that addresses our very own individual circumstances.  This kind of message that is specific to us is called a rhema word; a word that is specific only to you.

Lately for me, it just seems like one frustrating thing after another seems to occur.  I see progress in one area of my life and then out of nowhere another struggle appears.  I get to the point of being so frustrated that I actually forget to talk to God about my needs and circumstances.  I fall into the mode of self-pity.  I then turn to a person who cannot pull me out of my situation – myself.

What I was reminded of today in this particular devotion is that God wants to hear from us.  Even though He knows everything about us, he wants us to initiate the conversation with Him about our individual needs.  The Daily Bread references Exodus 2:25, and notes that when the children of Israel were in bondage, the word says that they cried out to God and God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

The truth of the matter is that God is always concerned about us.  He just needs us to know AND accept His Sovereignty.  As long as we continue to turn to ourselves to fix our own problems, we are being defiant in recognizing that God is sovereign over everything in the heavens and the earth.  Disregard for His sovereignty is the best way to put God in a holding pattern.  In this posture, He is not ignoring us.  He is just waiting on us.

A plane cannot land until it gets the okay from the airport control tower.  Once the okay is given, the plane immediately starts to descend upon its intended location.  God is waiting for the okay from us so that He can descend upon His intended location of our lives and show us how much He is concerned about us.

Be Blessed everyone.

But God

Bruises once covered your most inner parts

Scars once hardened your hopeless heart

But God,

He who can reach

Into the deepest parts of your soul

He who can soften

The hardest of hardened hearts

He sees you

He feels you

But most importantly

He heals you

He is God

                                                                                   Bert Reece

Step Away from the Vanity Mirror

So many of us are consumed with how we look; that would be men as well as women.  We spend so much time in front of the mirror trying to look good to and for others.  We use the mirror as a way to see our faults so that we can then cover them up.  When we walk away from the mirror, our goal is to “look” better than when we first sat down or stood up in front of it; however when we leave the mirror we are still the same flawed person that stood before the mirror.  We walk away feeling like a different person when really are not.

The vanity mirror for most people today, including Christians, is the world.  We want to look like the world and sound like the world.  We want the world to think that we look good and sound good.  We want the world to influence others in how they view us.  We are constantly staring into the vanity mirror hoping that the image reflected back to us is one that is acceptable to the majority.

The problem with using the world as our mirror is that we are not getting a true image of what is wrong with us.  This mirror says something is good when God says it is bad.  This mirror says to just cover it up and everything will be OK.  We walk away from this mirror with a temporary sense of confidence that gradually fades throughout the day.  We began to hope and pray that the flaws we have covered up will remain under cover. 

The true mirror for Christians is the word of God.  It was not created so we could cover up our faults.  It was created to expose our faults so that we can appropriately deal with them.  When you think about the Ten Commandments, they were not simply meant to be a set of rules to keep.  They were meant to be a body of work that God used to show us how we can’t keep them in its entirety.  God wants us to see how much we need Him.  He shows us daily that if we look into His mirror in an earnest manner, we will walk away humbled and submitted to His will because we will truly see that it is only His will that means anything in this world.

God asks us daily Mark 8:36 – What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

Let the Word be your mirror and not the world.