Daily Bible Study for Tuesday November 1, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around the Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV.
***Please note a change! We will look at everything
for our basic study from the King James Version going forward. It is helpful to
stay with one solid version as we study so as not to cause confusion. I may add
other translations for specific scriptures as the Lord directs.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible Gateway Verse of the Day
Ephesians 1:18
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Psalm 90
Confirm & Establish Our Calling
OK friends, this is our God, truly amazing and awesome. Once
again, He comes through with a powerful word for His children, you and me –
hallelujah! God knew this day was coming, but as I sit here at my keyboard, I
stand amazed at what the Lord has done. As far as these chapters go, I was
quite surprised on Friday to see how that chapter was as if I had written it
myself back when I was in terrible trouble and times of great sorrow. Then
yesterday’s chapter jumped out at me again as if to say, “Hanny, this has been
you!” Now today I look at Psalm 90 and to what do my wondering eyes appear? The
hope of my calling – glory to God! How excellent is His name in all the earth!
My hope is that it will jump off the pages in your Bible too and land right
into the depth of your heart, never to be forgotten! Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for having such great mercy on the sons of men.
Lord, even more we thank You for giving us a hope, a future, a calling and a
purpose. Though our lives are quite brief, like the passing of a flower in
springtime, You assign us a time here on the earth to blossom and flourish
according to Your great plan for each one of us. Father, I ask You to bring
this message to people all over the world who need to hear it. Cause them to
come across this blog and really receive the word for their lives that You
desire to plant in them. Water the seed of Your word with Holy Spirit today and
bring more and more people into their specific calling for such a time as this.
Father, I ask that You would grant me the anointing and utterance to deliver
Your word boldly, and with excellence and accuracy. This work of my hands is
unto You and I desire to do it with absolute perfection. Make it go out with
clarity to Your beloved children. Help them to have eyes to see, ears to hear
(in the spirit) and hearts to receive what You have for each one. Make this
message go worldwide unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh.
Father, we will purpose in our hearts to be doers of Your word and not
forgetful hearers. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it
when we are willing and obedient to it. Thank You for the answers, the
clarification, the revelations that will come as a result of this prayer. We
believe we have received what we asked for in prayer according to Your word and
thank You for it in Jesus powerful name. Amen.
We don’t know how God does what He does, but we certainly
stand continually amazed at Him, don’t we? What a Savior, what a God! He is
truly awesome. This brings us to our opening verse today. He has been our
dwelling place all along – yes, the Lord has always been there for us. We can
find great comfort in this, can’t we – amen! Look at this…
Daniel 4:3
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion is from generation to generation.
Personally, I have never studied through the Psalms like we
are now, and every day I am so excited to see what He will reveal. It is so
perfect, of course, and so applicable to our lives today even though the words
were penned from God’s heart thousands of years ago.
For man, our time on the earth is very brief. In just a
moment we will all be out of here. And to the Lord, time is nothing. A thousand
years are as a day. Time is on His side, to be certain, not ours. We have only
a few years…
Ecclesiastes 6:12
For who knoweth what is good
for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a
shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
Psalm 89:47
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Psalm 8:4
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou
visitest him?
God loves people. That is why
He created us – to love us. He wanted us to love Him too, by choice of course. Then
He wanted to fill our lives with good things. He had a way to keep us busy
doing His good work. We
need to make the right choices with the years we have. We need to understand
early on what the reason is that we are here. Then, we need to step into that
purpose and get busy – amen. Kids may think it will take forever to turn 5
years old, or 10; then the big “16” so they can drive a car, and finally they
look forward to their high school graduation with great anticipation. After
that, it is “down the road you go, kiddo” into all that the Lord has designed
for you, one simple day at a time.
If we know what our purpose and calling is at an early age,
we can walk through the seasons of our lives with assurance that God is there
for us. He will lead and guide us every step of the way. I get excited when I
see families raising their children up in the ways of the Lord. I say to them,
“Have all the kids you can! Keep it up!” We need more and more people raising
godly kids so we can see them take their rightful place in the kingdom work
that God has for them – now more than ever.
This chapter was a prayer of Moses – the man of God. He went
into great detail about how brief a man’s life is. In reality, we should be
living 120 days, but because of many factors, most of the people are only
living 70-80 years, give or take a few on either side. Many of the reasons the lives
of people are cut short has to do with folks not walking with God or following
Holy Spirit’s leading, causing them to die with sickness and disease
prematurely, or by accidents that could have been avoided. That said, man has
been given a purpose on this planet. God created us and has detailed plans for
every human being that would ever traverse this planet.
Today in this prayer, Moses is asking the Lord to turn His
(rightful) anger away from His people. Their sin has brought forth God’s wrath,
but Moses is crying out to Him to have mercy on them. Isn’t that what we all
need today? After all, how many of us have truly followed the Lord all of our
lives and lived the way He wanted us to – sin free all of our days? The answer
to that is obvious. Look at this…
Psalm 51:1
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Isaiah 54:8
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a
moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
If a person has missed it and
maybe they have lived most of their life in sin, turning to the Lord at a late
age, it is not too late. I am a witness on that account. There is no time like
the present to repent, stop doing what we have been doing wrong and get back up
on the pavement to go down the road the Lord has marked out for us. Some have
been called to be preachers and refused to step into it, even though it had
been made clear to them what their calling was.
Others were called to go to
foreign lands and live there as missionaries, but decided to stay within the
comfortable boundaries of the United States rather than to follow God’s call
for them. What did they get in return for this decision? A life of financial
struggles, loss of various kinds, sickness, and family problems. I have heard
of actual accounts like this. One man went 40 years in the opposite direction
of what the Lord wanted him to do. He admitted that his life had been filled
with trouble because of his disobedience. It just isn’t worth it – I can
testify to that!
Verse 12 today is significant.
If we are going to walk in the calling of God, the only appropriate request is
the one given in this verse. Without godly wisdom, we would fail miserably
indeed. Moses was asking the Lord for the right thing. He asked God to teach
them (us) how to live each day correctly, using His wisdom to be successful.
Look at this…
Proverbs 2 (The Entire
Chapter)
2 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide
my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and
apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest
up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for
her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord giveth
wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he
is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth
the way of his saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and
judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and
knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding
shall keep thee:
12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man,
from the man that speaketh froward things;
13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in
the ways of darkness;
14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the
frowardness of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in
their paths:
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even
from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and
forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her
paths unto the dead.
19 None that go unto her return again, neither take
they hold of the paths of life.
20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,
and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the
perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth,
and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Friends, this is what we all
need in order to walk out our God given calling and fulfill all our purpose.
Without wisdom, we would make some seriously wrong choices – ask me how I know
this! Here Moses was asking for God’s wisdom and mercy. Then he went on to ask
of the Lord if He would be so kind as to give His people back their lives in
gladness. He wanted to see the Lord restore the number of days that they had
been afflicted with days filled with rejoicing and gladness. In this we can see
God’s amazing grace and mercy, because that is what the Lord wants to do for
His people…
Joel 2:25
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you.
Have you lost 5, 10, 20 or 30
years of your life by running away from the Lord and following your own path?
If so, do not fret my friend. I lost 25 years, not to mention a stolen
childhood. But today, at age 61, the Lord, in His never-ending mercy and grace
is enabling me the great honor and privilege to bring His word to you and many
others. I certainly did nothing to deserve this. It has everything to do with
God’s love for me. If it had not been for the Lord, I would long since been
dead and buried.
None of these things would be happening right now. Oh, but the
mercy of our God is great. If you have missed a lot of years, God can and will
restore them to you and give you more than you ever could have asked or
imagined if you will make a determined effort to turn your life around and live
it for Him and His calling and purpose. I can tell you that what He has done
for me He will do for you. God does not respect one person above another.
Anyone who honors Him, He will honor…
1 Samuel 2:30
30 Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed
that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever:
but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will
honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
I spent far too many days being
lightly esteemed in God’s eyes. Now I want to honor Him with all my heart. And
now, He is ever so graciously honoring me. What a witness and a testimony He
can make out of lives that look as if they were totally destroyed! Praise His
name forever! Now we will move into the last verse of this chapter which is the
theme for our study today. Let’s look at it again…
Psalm 90:17
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou
the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
In the verse just prior to
this one, Moses is asking that God’s work appear to His children. In other
words, he is asking God to reveal what His plan is to His kids – us. Friends,
we have to ask God for things. Even though He knows what we need, we still have
to ask. Our duty is to seek Him for what our calling and purpose is. We have
not if we ask not – Jesus said it Himself. We will not be able to figure it out
on our own. We must have the Lord tell us and direct our every step.
By the time we reach the 17th
verse, Moses is asking the Lord to allow His beauty to be upon His children.
What does this mean? Well, some say His favor. That may be true in part. But
when we look at this and listen to what Holy Spirit is saying, it should also
be that when people look at us, they should see all the good things about God
manifesting in our own lives. His beauty should be our beauty. The way He is
should be the way we are. Jesus said it Himself…
Luke 6:40
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
If we will follow God’s plan
for our lives, He will establish our thoughts and our steps…
Proverbs 16:3
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and
thy thoughts shall be established.
Psalm 40:2
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out
of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
steps.
Once our minds are stayed on the Lord and our feet are firmly
set on following Jesus – our Rock, then the Lord will show us what to do, what
to say, where to go and how to get there. He has plan for all of it. Our part
is to have faith in Him that He who called us is faithful. He will provide the
helpers we need and the financial resources to get the job done. We can depend
on Him to pay the bill by bringing the funds to us. The amplified Bible has a
great way of saying this verse because it becomes all-encompassing in this. Having
God’s personality characteristics actively at work in our lives and listening
to the leading of Holy Spirit every step of the way, our ways and our work will
be established for us – hallelujah! Let’s look at what the amplified classic
has to say…
Psalm 90:17
And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
confirm and establish the
work of our hands—yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.
Now let’s look at the Master
and how He stepped into His earthly ministry. He never sinned and missed it
like we all have. Jesus
was the only one who made it through His life as a man on the earth from start
to finish without sinning. He knew from an early age what His calling was. He
was paying attention.
We know that Mary and Joseph would have taught Him exactly
the things the Lord wanted Him to be taught (according to the scriptures) so
that one day He could step into the full-time ministry that His Father in
heaven had planned for Him. Because His parents were faithful to their roles
and specific duties, they produced good work in sending Jesus out, well trained
and ready to reach a lost and hurting world. The Lord had anointed Jesus to
preach, teach and be an example for all mankind for all time. Ultimately He
would fulfill the role that only He could because of His sinless life and become
the propitiation (payment) to cover the sin of everyone who would ever live. Let’s
take a look at His ministry in the book of Matthew…
Matthew 4:13-17
13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in
Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and
Nephthalim:
14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias the prophet, saying,
15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim,
by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great
light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung
up.
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to
say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
This is where Jesus stepped out of the desert and began His
ministry. His time was at hand. At the age of 30, He went out to do His
Father’s work. Let’s look at what He said about this…
John 4:34
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
What Jesus was saying here is that the thing that would
sustain Him (even above natural food for His body) would be to do exactly what
the Father God had sent Him to do and finish it. Does this describe the desires
of your heart friend? Jesus was 100% committed to do what He was sent to do. How
about you? Here’s another verse…
John 6:38
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of
him that sent me.
This
is an excellent example to all of us about our focus on our purpose and
calling. We have our Savior here showing us how to keep our eyes on the purpose
and the goal. Many Christians have been distracted by the other duties and
affairs of this life, taking them far more seriously than the work God has
called them to. Many Christians wanted to get saved and know they are going to
heaven when they die, but when asked to leave their home, their profession and
family, they cringe and turn back, deciding that it is just not worth the
sacrifice. That is so SADD-U-CEE because they are forgoing the many blessings
and rewards that will come as a result of their obedience.
But
for every man and woman alive, the Lord has a purpose for us to fulfill. He has
given each of us a specific calling. We have been given certain talents
(skills, preferences and abilities) that are specifically designed by the Lord
to do what He has called us to do. To add to that, He sets us in places where
we will learn and grow in the area of our calling. I will use me for an
example. The Lord called me to preach and teach His word. How could I do such a
thing when I didn’t finish high school, never went to college or seminary, or
had any formal training in the subject of preaching and teaching? What He did
was order my steps into a profession that was absolutely miraculous!
As
I think of all the years that the Lord has been training me for what I am doing
now, I marvel. When I was young, the last grade I completed was 8th
grade in junior high school. Because of problems, I missed the majority of 9th
grade and the rest of my high school years. I missed a lot. But the Lord had a
calling and purpose for me that was way beyond anything I knew. He made a way
to educate me. I really enjoyed learning. To me school was fun. But my school
years were cut short. I wanted to go to college and even started some night
classes, but the busyness of work and life just got in the way and I never made
it through.
I
did obtain a general education high school diploma (GED) by the miraculous power
of God. How many understand that when God has a work for us to do, He will make
a way for us to be trained and equipped to do it? I can’t say it enough. He is
the one who will make a way for us. He literally peeled me off the street where
I was homeless and using drugs via intravenous needles to a classroom setting
for a large well known health insurance company.
What happened from that point
on is a series of miracles. I learned and grew in many ways through my
profession. Finally, it came to a point where I was out giving presentations to
large employer groups each year when their employee benefits were due to be
renewed. I would present to them in the front of the room, answer questions and
then teach them the right ways to use their health insurance to get the maximum
benefit of it.
Also,
this made me more aware of living a healthy lifestyle which would become a
passion in my life to teach others in the body of Christ, after walking away
from food and sugar addiction. The full testimony is nothing short of a miracle
and all the glory goes to God. I did make the choice to hang in there, but I
believe He was right there helping me to hang on through the tough times when a
person would be tempted to just give up and walk away because it was getting
too hard.
I wasn’t even walking with Him – yet. Anyone who knows anything about
the life and health insurance business today knows that it has become more like
that of the business of law. In fact, there is so much law involved in it, one
feels like they are taking a “bar exam” when they do their annual continuing
education credit studies.
The
point is, God will set us in exactly the right place to get us ready to step
into our calling – just like He did with Jesus. We started with Jesus’ example.
From there, He went about calling the disciples whom the Father had shown Him
to be the very blessed chosen men who would train under His ministry so that
one day, they too could go out and fulfill their purpose and calling. Let’s move
on in the same chapter…
Matthew
4:18-22
18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw
two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into
the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and
followed him.
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two
brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with
Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22 And they immediately left the ship and their
father, and followed him.
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they
brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and
torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were
lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
25 And there followed him great multitudes of
people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea,
and from beyond Jordan.
Jesus
went right to the people who needed to be with Him in ministry and called them
out of their worldly professions into the work of the ministry. They dropped
everything the moment they were called, including spouses and children, along
with other kinfolk. If only more of us would respond to the Lord’s calling as
promptly as they did! Jesus went right to work, and their training had begun.
Glory to God. Now let’s go way back in time to see the calling on Abraham’s
life. Most of you know his story, but the Lord brought it to us today to review
because it fits in so perfectly with this lesson and our discussion thus far…
Acts
7:1-10
7 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers,
hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans,
and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him
into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not
so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for
a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should
sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and
entreat them evil four hundred years.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage
will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in
this place.
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision:
and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat
Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph
into Egypt: but God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions,
and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he
made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Talk
about a calling! What if Abraham had not obeyed the Lord? What if he wanted to
be with his family in his home town so much and be sure not to miss the
Thursday night chicken dinners that mama cooks every week (laugh out loud!) Just
do a Selah here for a moment. Pause….and calmly think about that. Now put
yourself in Abraham’s shoes. What has God called you to do? Did you obey? Were
you willing to leave it all and follow after His purpose for your life so that
many people could be blessed and you could be richly rewarded by your Father in
heaven? Abraham became the father of many nations, and through his seed, all
nations would be blessed because Jesus is the seed of Abraham…
Galatians
3:29
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Friend, there is nothing in
this world or our individual lives that can compare to the glorious purpose and
calling that God has for us. Does the flesh consider it to be painful?
Absolutely! Is it worth the sacrifice? Yes it is! Besides, the Lord sets us on
high, far from affliction and gives us many family members that far exceed the
few folks we left back home…
Psalm 107:41
Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families
like a flock.
Look
at the Easy to Read Version on this verse…
But he rescues the poor from their misery. He
makes their families large like flocks of sheep.
Again I can testify personally that I have experienced this!
We had a very small immediate family with 5 kids and divorced parents by the
time I was 9 years old. We didn’t have any aunts and uncles living nearby,
though we had some. We didn’t have the usual family gatherings at holiday time
and my heart longed for a big family. I used to envy those with great big
loving families. That was my heart’s desire. When I left my children behind to
come to Florida, what I inherited was much greater – not that I do not love and
cherish my children; I do.
But the Lord has given me the flock of His sheep as
my family. There are millions in the body of Christ. Every time I step into one
of their homes, I immediately feel like I am part of the family and it warms my
heart beyond what I can describe to you. People who love the Lord are our true
family and it is a delight to fellowship with them. That’s the promise, and God
never fails on His promises.
Now let’s wrap it up with a look at how the disciples handled
their commitment to the calling the Lord had given them…
Acts 6:1-8
6 And in those days, when the number of the
disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the
Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the
disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word
of God, and serve tables.
3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven
men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint
over this business.
4 But we will give ourselves continually to
prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and
they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and
Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of
Antioch:
6 Whom they set before the apostles: and when they
had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God increased; and the number of
the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith.
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and miracles among the people.
They knew that they could not fulfill their ministry calling
without help. How many know and realize that God doesn’t expect us to do
everything? He has a role for each person. The body of Christ is just that – a
body. And a body has many parts. When parts are missing, the body does not
function like it should. There are people called to preach and teach. Others
are called to do the administrative duties, etc. But those who are helping the
preachers and teachers are getting the same rewards that the preachers and
teachers are getting because they are in their proper place doing what God
asked them to do. As a result, they get rewarded for the many souls who are
getting saved – just like the guys/gals out there on the front lines doing the
work of the ministry.
If people didn’t help ministers, the minister couldn’t
minister. He would be ill equipped to fulfill his role, and it would bring
negative results. Many pastors and evangelists try to do more than they are
called to do. Many churches have a select “group” of people who are willing to
be there and volunteer, while the majority just want to show up for the service
and go home. This leaves the body bruised and broken. It should not be so. We
all have a job to do. Each one can be richly rewarding, even if we are called
to be a janitor at the church. God can make a person a millionaire janitor if they
are working the word of God correctly and obedient to the Lord’s call on their
life. More folks need to understand these things. How about you? Is your place
at church empty? Is your spot still waiting for you?
In my own life, I have seen how the Lord has been bringing me
into my real calling over this past couple of years. Step by step He has been
lining things up for me. He has been helping me to get willing and obedient.,
like we discussed yesterday, so He could open the doors for me to walk into all
that He has had planned for me. I had to be obedient with the first steps, and
then the second, and so on. It all comes together in steps. It does not happen
overnight. One has to operate in the fruit of patience through it all.
To get discouraged and give up is to stop trusting God. This
will not please Him. It takes great faith, and it is up to us to exercise our
faith by what we do.
By following God’s plan, we will be given great favor. He
will open doors that no man could open and close doors that need to be closed
to get us to move along. But it is all up to you and me. He already made the
plans. The big question is, will you leave everything and follow hard after it?
The choice is yours my friend.
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
God has a specific call for every
man and woman
If we listen and obey, the Lord will
direct our steps
Following God’s plan will bring
great favor and blessing to our lives and the lives of many others
Questions:
What had the most impact on you today as you studied this Psalm?
What has God called you to do in the body of Christ?
Are you willing to go and do whatever the Lord wants you to
do?
Describe your understanding of the favor of the Lord.
Who can you share this study with?
Let’s
pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for having a plan
that is specifically designed for me. Lord, help me to get back on track if I
have wandered off the path You have for me. Show me what I need to do to get
ready Lord. I know that faith gets ready. Father, I want to be ready to go
where You want to send me – no matter where it is. I will make it my goal to be
willing and obedient to Your call. Father, help me to think of the many people that
You can use me to bless when I do what I have been created to do. Thank You in
advance for Your help, Your leading and Your wisdom to fulfill my purpose and
calling in Jesus name. Amen.
What
is God calling you to do? Will you listen and obey?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Luke 18:29-30
29 And
he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake,
30 Who
shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come
life everlasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment