people of God

A Prayer for America

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This is not original, and it is a bit lengthy, but it is worth the extra time to read. I think what this nation needs more than any Republican or Democrat answers is revival and spiritual awakening in the hearts of the people of God first and foremost, followed by many of the lost in our land coming to faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Let your revival fall in our time and in our land, and let it begin in me.

“Let’s Pray for America:

Father, we plead the blood of Jesus over our nation, and call on the power and the presence of God to sever all cords that would cause principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places to control the leaders of our nation in local, federal, and executive offices in our generations. Father, give us godly leaders who will carry on the heritage of the dedication of our nation to Jesus our Lord. Father, Your Word, the Bible, said that when godly men reign, the people rejoice. It also says that the people cry out under the rule of the ungodly, deliver us from the oppression of the ungodly, and appoint us Christ centered, bible believing, righteous, godly leaders to rule.

Have mercy on our nation, forgive the sins of our forefathers and those of our present generation. Forgive us for every law that builds strongholds in the mindsets of the present and upcoming generations through perversion and the bloodshed of the innocent. Remove from our eyes the veils and scales of welcoming false religions and idolatry into our nation. Let all leaders who promote idolatry, sexual perversion, illegal activity be delivered and exposed immediately and be delt with. Let every under-cover agenda of the enemy which promotes, satanic networks, racist spirits, witchcraft, antichrist spirit rising in political and religious offices be exposed and be delt with.

Let every agenda set to hinder, cause compromise, and calls for persecution against those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ be judged.

Father, we pray for the people and leaders of our nation that they might live peaceable lives in goodness and honesty (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Raise up leaders in our nation who will worship and serve You (Psalm 72:11). Raise up leaders who will help the poor and needy find deliverance (Psalm 72:12-13). We declare that there is no deliverance without Jesus. Father, we pray for revival on Capitol Hill that will cause America to sing a new song of praise to Jesus our Lord. (Psalm 96:1-3). Raise up leaders in our nation who will call the people to tremble before the Lord. Give us leaders who love your Word, listen to your Word, obey your Word, who will cause ethe families of our nation to be blessed (Gal. 3:14).

Let your glory be declared among the people of our nation and let the healing waters flow in our nation (Ezekiel 47:9). We pray for repentance that will bring healing to the land, and that every leader in this nation will submit their rule to the reign of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord over America and the nations. In Jesus name we pray Amen” (Fady Al-Hagal).

Daily Bread Vs. a Lifetime Supply

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Recently, a friend sent me an article about trusting God for daily bread versus really wanting God to dump a year’s worth of supply in one drop so I don’t have to worry. In my flesh, I’d rather be set for life than have to be like the Israelites of old and trust God for daily provision.

Speaking of those ol’ people of God, they didn’t always listen. When God said to gather only as much as manna as you need for that day, they thought they’d be oh so smart and oh so clever and gather two or three days’ worth. What happened? The excess manna rotted and smelled to high heaven, as did the people’s attitude.

God supplies our needs daily because He knows our ultimate need isn’t bread. What we need most isn’t physical. We need God, and when we learn to trust God for each day, our dependence deepens and grows as we see each day’s needs met.

I confess I’m not very good at that. I tend to be forgetful. Thankfully, God has a gentle way of reminding me of the last 10,000 times He’s provided for me (sometimes without me even knowing or asking). He’s faithful even when I’m faithless and forgetful.

Anyway, I included the original article if you want to be blessed as much as I was:

Why Daily Bread Is Better

My Read Thru the Bible in 2017 Update

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My quest to read through the Bible in 2017 finds me in the book of Joshua. So far, I see that God has established a people who are in the process of becoming a nation while claiming the promised land.

I’ve noticed two things– 1) These people seem to go out of their way to screw up and to disobey what God has decreed, even when they’ve learned from numerous experiences that God’s ways are always best. 2) God continues to be patient with His people, though not always letting the people’s rebellion slide.

At first glance, it’s easy to be come frustrated with the people of Israel. Why can’t they just do what God says the first time and save a lot of trouble and heartbreak?

The more I look at these people, the more I see myself mirrored back. Why is it that I have such a reluctance to do what I clearly know God is asking of me? Why do I have such a tendency toward disobedience and outright rebellion?

Maybe the real question is this– why is God so patient with me after all the times I’ve given Him no reason to? Why is God still pursuing a love relationship with me when all I seem to do is respond with anything but love?

God’s people continue to be an imperfect representation of God and His Kingdom. We’ve gotten it wrong far more than we’ve ever gotten it right. We’ve made it far more complicated than it needs to be to get to God as we’ve set up way too many obstacles between people and God.

Still, we’re a broken people trying to figure out what it means to follow and serve God individually as well as corporately. We’re a work in progress that thankfully remains in progress not because we deserve it but because God has promised to finish what He started in us.

Now back to those meddling Israelites.

 

Judges: A Book Review

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So here I am, reading through the Bible again. I just finished the book of Judges. In my opinion, that has to be the most depressing book in the Bible.

In the first few verses of the book, it tells us that after the generation that claimed the Promised Land died out, the very next generation that came after didn’t know the Lord or what He had done for His people.

That didn’t take long.

There is a familiar pattern in judges, repeated ad nauseum. The people run after the next available god, fall into sin, get into trouble, and call on God. God sends a deliverer who bails them out and there is peace in the land — until another cheap idol shows up.

I read the Bible and I see the people of God by and large acting like anything but the people of God. It can be very frustrating.

Then I remember that I am one of those people of God. I find myself falling into familiar patterns of sin over and over, despite the guilt that remains from the last time. I find myself renewing the old promise of “never again,” which lasts until the next opportunity presents itself.

So I can relate.

I’m not excusing my (or anyone else’s sin). I’m just saying that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. It doesn’t have to be the familiar refrain.

I’m thankful for a grace that goes deeper and longer than any sin. I’m also thankful for a God who refuses to let me wallow in my self-destructive sin, but will provide me a way out. He won’t rest or quit with me until I am 100% sin-free.

I know that my story is your story. It’s the story of every child of God. But I also know that story doesn’t end with sin. It ends with grace.

 

 

Late-Night Thoughts About Joseph

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Joseph replied, ‘Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people.'” (Gen. 50:20)

As I have confessed before, there’s a whole lot I don’t know. Especially when it comes to why horrible things happen to godly people. I can point to verses that talk about God working in mysterious ways and how he works all things together for good, but at the end of the day, I’m unable to explain why God couldn’t have worked it out for them in a less painful way.

That’s when I yield to faith. I yield to what I know of God and his character. I yield to what I know of his proven track record in my own life. And I have to fall down on my knees and confess that he is good and that I have nowhere else to turn.

Joseph comes to mind. If anyone in the Bible had a right to play the victim card, it was Joseph. Sold into slavery by his own flesh and blood, falsely accused and slandered by the wife of the man that he had done nothing but serve faithfully for years, and forgotten in prison by those who promised they would remember. I would have thrown in the towel long before then.

But Joseph chose forgiveness. He chose to look with eyes of faith to what human eyes couldn’t see– that God was working even in the worst of circumstances to save not just one man, but an entire nation. He, like so many others, looked to the promises of God and counted them as good as done even when they seemed as good as dead.

I love what a pastor says. God can take that worst moment of your life, that most painful and humiliating season, and make it the first line of your testimony. To borrow a quote I’ve heard a lot lately, he can turn your mess into your message, your test into your testimony, your trial into triumph, and the victim into a victor. You will be able to speak to the pain that no one else can touch because you’ve walked through it.

I love this verse in Hebrews 11: “By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.” In other words, Joseph saw that God was able to redeem every single part of what he went through for a purpose far greater than himself. A purpose that saw the rise of a people of God, and later the Messiah.

May you and I see our circumstances with that kind of faith. May we trust that God is just as able to redeem our pain to make something equally as glorious and beautiful out of our messes.