Displaying God through Your Life

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:2

is God's gift, for there is nothing we can do to save ourselves (Eph. 2:8–9).

Yet with salvation comes the responsibility to work out our salvation.

Once we have been saved, we must claim all that has become ours.

Through salvation, God gave you victory over sin.

That victory applies not only to past sins but also to every sin you will ever commit.

When you became a Christian, God made you a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

God wants to continually build new things into your life as you walk with Him.

God gave you His joy when He saved you, and He wants to fill you with His joy daily. When you first repented of your sin, you relinquished your right to your life.

God continues to ask you to yield your will to Him and to follow His leading rather than setting your own direction for your life.

When you were converted, God made everything available to you; how you implement what He has given you is your choice (2 Pet. 1:3–9).

This is the great paradox of the Christian life.

We are to work diligently on our faith, yet always with the awareness that only God can bring about lasting change in our lives.

As we see God at work in us, we are motivated to work even more diligently. God will not force His changes upon us; neither can we bring about lasting change in our lives apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. When you sense God developing an area of your life, join Him in His activity so that His salvation will be demonstrated fully in you

Circumstances of life

And God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.”

Exodus 6:2–3

As God has walked with His people through the generations, He has progressively revealed His nature according to His purposes and the needs of His people.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as God Almighty, because they needed His mighty power to protect them from their enemies.

Moses and the Israelites learned that God was Lord, Master over every nation and every thing.

God not only delivered them from the most powerful ruler in the world, but also brought them into the Promised Land.

They came to experience Him as Lord, preeminently powerful over the pagan gods of their day.

God will continue to reveal His character to you according to your needs and according to His purposes.

You will come to know more and more about Him as you obey Him.

When you grieve, He will come to you as Comforter. When you are in need, He will demonstrate that He is the Provider.

When you face a serious challenge, He will reveal that He is God Almighty.

Your understanding of God's character ought to be greater now than when you first became a Christian.

You ought to know Him today better than you did five years ago.

Sadly, some Christians continue to live year after year with the same basic knowledge of God that they had when they first began walking with Him.

Whatever your present situation, view it in the light of what God is teaching you, through circumstances, about Himself and you will come to know God in dimensions you have never known Him before.

Confidence in Prayer

You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior. You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas. You formed the mountains by your power and armed yourself with mighty strength.

Psalm 65:5-6

When we pray, we are talking to the all-powerful God who created the earth by the power of his word, whose wonders fill the earth—and who faithfully answers our prayers with awesome deeds! Prayer is how he has designed his mighty power to be released on the earth, in our lives, and in the lives of those who desperately need God’s help. It’s like the huge generator one of the children in my prayer group drew to show what he had learned about prayer.

“That’s God,” Grant said. “He’s got all this power for us.” Then he drew a long diagonal line from the big generator to some stick figures representing a family. “That’s who needs help. And the power flows along the cord as we pray!” Realizing God’s awesome power changes the way we pray and the way we live. His power is available for every situation and need so that we “can do everything with the help of Christ who gives [us] the strength [we] need” (Philippians 4:13). This is a God we can trust and lean on. This is the all-powerful God in whom we can have confidence when we pray.

LORD, we praise you for your power. We believe, but help our unbelief, and fill us with fresh faith through the power of your Word. Enlarge our circle of prayer, not just for our needs and our own family but for those who are hurting, oppressed, and lost around us. You are our hope and the hope of everyone on the earth!

OUR PRAYERS LAY THE TRACK DOWN ON WHICH GOD’S POWER CAN COME. LIKE A MIGHTY LOCOMOTIVE, HIS POWER IS IRRESISTIBLE, BUT IT CANNOT REACH US WITHOUT RAILS.

Watchman Nee
(1903–1972)

Why Invite Trouble?

Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick.Isaiah 1:5
Tom Sawyer’s cousin, Sid, “had no adventurous, troublesome ways.”1 He went quietly about his business, did his chores, and caused no ripples. Tom, however, was different. He had a nose for trouble. Occasionally, very occasionally, he “stumbled into obedient conduct,” much to the delight of his long-suffering Aunt Polly. But even then things were not always as they appeared.

It is impossible to imagine a book called The Adventures of Sid Sawyer. Who would want to read about a good kid who never got into trouble, never rocked a boat, never finagled his way out of a fix? We prefer the escapades and scrapes of an adventurous rascal. But as appealing as these characters are, their mischievousness can be disruptive.

Why do some people seek out trouble and home in on it like a heat-seeking missile? Perhaps it’s the thrill of matching wits with authority. Maybe it’s an indication of a restlessness of spirit that seeks a satisfaction not found in legitimate activities.

In the days of Isaiah the prophet, God asked his chosen people, “Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel for ever?” (Isa. 1:5). The people’s rebellion and unacceptable behavior were inviting God’s punishment. In fact, the Lord was so disgusted by their behavior that he even told them that the donkey and ox recognize and appreciate their master, but his people’s behavior didn’t even reach the standard of those servile animals!

God is the one who defines acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and he is the one who metes out the appropriate punishment when his laws are contravened. If we doubt the reality of judgment by God, or if we question whether a man should concern himself with the eternal consequences of his actions, a brief reading of God’s dealings with Israel will show the facts. God displays his righteousness by dealing rightly with his people. That includes ensuring that they live with the consequences of their actions.

But the question remains. Why do people continue to invite punishment? Why do we persist in rebelling against God? The answer is found in Isaiah’s statement. We invite punishment when we take from God all he provides but do not “appreciate his care.” We invite trouble when, after years of instruction, we “still do not understand.” We continue to rebel when, prompted by our wicked hearts, we willfully turn “away from the Lord.” We behave like God’s ancient people when we cut ourselves off “from his help” (Isa. 1:3-4).

People who persist in rebelling and inviting God’s punishment are asking for trouble. And there’s nothing appealing about that!

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
This is an excerpt from:

Seeds Sowers

Seed Sowers

The farmer I talked about is the one who brings God’s message to others.

Mark 4:14

In West Africa people customarily sing as they work in the fields.

They lift their voices as they plant in anticipation of the harvest.

Perhaps this is how the farmer in the parable appeared as he walked through the field.

As he tossed seed, it fell in various types of soil—some hard, some weedy, some shallow, and some good and fertile.

Not once did Jesus describe the farmer as anxious; rather, he portrayed the sower as faithfully carrying out his job.

Sometimes we treat evangelism as a heavy burden. Instead of cheerfully scattering seed everywhere, we become soil testers, trying to determine whether or not the seed will flourish even before we plant.

We hover over the tender shoots, trying to thwart weeds.

When a seed doesn’t produce the desired fruit, we may declare ourselves failures as farmers.

But God has called us to plant the message of the gospel in whatever field he places us.

It is the Lord of the harvest who nourishes the tiny seeds and causes them to grow.

You may never see the bushels of souls that result from seeds you planted, but you can sing as you sow and anticipate a harvest of thirty, sixty, and even a hundredfold.

GOD, I can scatter seeds in my job, my neighborhood, my family, and plant seeds of hope in people I encounter every day.

Help me to sing as I plant and be confident that many of those seeds will take root in soil that will someday produce a harvest.

PLANT A WORD OF LOVE HEART-DEEP IN A PERSON’S LIFE. NURTURE IT WITH A SMILE AND A PRAYER, AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS.
Max Lucado (b. 1955)

Disability and Service

“Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD?” EXODUS 4:11

Read
Exod 4:1-17

God called Moses to deliver his messages to the enslaved Israelites and to Pharaoh. Yet the prophet felt inadequate to serve, reasoning that his speech problems disqualified him from speaking for God.

He even gave God other reasons for his reluctance, saying the Hebrews would not believe God had sent him and even simply asking God to send someone else.

But God confronted Moses’ complaints with some powerful questions: “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak . . . ?” (4:11).

Actually, Moses’ objection was more about his inability to trust God than his disability in speaking God’s message.

This is the place Shaw Bates came to as well.

Shaw Bates grew up with dyslexia (a language skill disorder) and learning disabilities.

Learning for Shaw felt like he was climbing a ladder while people without disabilities took the elevator.

When he was seventeen, he didn’t know what his future would hold.

One day in prayer, Shaw felt the Lord saying he wanted him to make a difference in other people’s lives by serving in Christian ministry.

He thought that if God could powerfully use Moses, then perhaps he could use him, too.

With the Lord’s help, Shaw graduated from Biola University with a BA in psychology and began serving as a community support specialist in a nonprofit organization.

Like Moses and Shaw, God calls us each to look beyond our limitations and trust him to enable us.

Our weaknesses shouldn’t keep us from experiencing the joy of serving others in God’s name.

They should cause us to marvel at his awesome power and provision whether we serve people with disabilities or we’re being served by them.

Five Qualities of Strong Leadership “

As Joshua prepared to lead more than two million Israelites into the Promised Land, he commanded everyone to pause in the midst of the excitement so that he could deliver this very important exhortation: “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.” The next morning, Joshua approached the priests and said, “Lift up the Ark of Covenant and lead the people across the river.”

These two statements reveal that, in order to successfully execute God’s plan, Joshua knew that he and his entire team had to embrace two key concepts. First, they needed to purify themselves before the Almighty. Joshua had learned the wisdom of depending on God for success. Because sin can prevent us from hearing God’s voice, Joshua made an ongoing choice to repent of sin and admonished his team to do the same.

Secondly, Joshua and the Israelites had to fix their hope and focus upon the Lord as their Ultimate Leader. In humility, Joshua understood the importance of having the Ark of the Covenant lead the people. It was a visual reminder that God was going ahead of them and leading His people through the unknown across the Jordan River. Joshua chose God as his leader, and therefore the people followed his example.

Below are five qualities of strong leadership that we can all prayerfully adopt as we shepherd flocks in ministry and/or the workplace.

1 Joshua led his team by example. He did not ask the Israelites to do anything that he was not already doing himself.
2 Joshua held his team accountable for their choices by exhorting them to purify themselves before the Lord. He knew the value of repentance.
3 Joshua spent time seeking God’s will before he crafted any plans. He trusted God rather than himself.
4 Joshua obeyed God. In humility, Joshua received God’s instruction as truth and followed it. 
5 Joshua knew and studied God’s word. He feared God and valued truth over man’s opinion. 

And here’s the promise God gave to Joshua because of his choices,

“Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses.” Joshua 3:7