Several years ago, I heard the soft, gentle voice of God calling me to become a speaker for Him.  My replies were much like Moses.  I reminded Him of all my inadequacies and that I did best speaking as I was currently one person at a time.  Then, as though part of the training process, I began to teach and speak in a jail ministry.  It was there that I realized that God would provide the words when I needed them.  I also was asked to speak at some conferences for a small church.  I finished writing the three books God had asked me to write and I began the discipline of writing these devotionals for you.  During that time, there was a lot of chaff that needed sifting and a lot of Bible study to do; but God always remained patient and gently guiding each step.  As always, He sent the right teachers each step of the way.  Now, He is drawing me to step out further to be the speaker He is calling me to be; the one He has spent my whole lifetime preparing.  I recently went to the SCORRE conference and realized this is the direction He is drawing me toward and that His Grace will provide the words needed as I "boldly before His throne of Grace, find mercy and the grace to help in time of need"  I realize that it is His Grace that under girds me when I speak and I must ask for that grace each and every time.  Without His coming down to uphold me, then nothing I say can be of any importance or consequence.  Sometimes as I move forward, I look ahead and see such obstacles like Giants in my pathway.  As I keep asking for reconfirmation that this is what God desires for my life, I am amazed at His patience in step by step guiding me along this path.  The Israelite nation was about to cross the Jordan to go in and take the land that God had promised them through Abraham and this was the admonition of Moses, as well as the warning to follow once God had given the land to them.

Deuteronomy  9 (NIVUK) Hear, Israel: you are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. ² The people are strong and tall – Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: ‘Who can stand up against the Anakites?’ ³ But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

⁴ After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

So when God has called you to bid His Will and step into whatever promised territory He has planned for you, keep your eyes on Him and kept stepping forward.  If when you are looking ahead, you see what appears to be insurmountable Giants standing in front of you; remember this God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy all those giant obstacles one by one.  Then, there is one more very important principle which I must never forget, nor you when you reach that area of promise.  That principle is that it is not because of my righteousness, nor my deserving anything—it has been grace each step of the way.  It is not about me.  If ever, I forget that; then I pray God rip everything from me before I can cause harm to His ministry in any way. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOkImV2cJDg

 

New International Version – UK (NIVUK)

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Frequently, I have said that we need to cling to the covenant promises of God as our anchor when sorrows, doubts, or trials come our way.  I must confess that there are those moments when doubts and fears try to bombard my mind; but, it is those same moments that I must run to the scripture and read once more the promises of God.  Here in Jeremiah He has promised not to turn away from me, from doing me good.  He has taken the responsibility for my security in faith as well as He proclaims that He will place in my heart the reverence and awe toward Him so that I will not depart.  He will rejoice over me to do good. Amazing thought, God rejoicing over me.

Jeremiah 32: 39 I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: ⁴⁰ And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. ⁴¹ Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

Much like the covenant promise in Zephaniah 3: ¹⁷ The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

So rejoice.  Ahhh, I hear some of you murmuring there that all those covenant promises were to the offspring of Abraham.  Well, then again I say rejoice.  Have you not heard?  All who believe in Jesus Christ through faith are the children of Abraham.  Paul makes this argument throughout chapter 3 of Galatians and also chapter 4 of Romans.  I urge you to carefully read both of those chapters.

Galatians 3: ⁶ Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

⁷ Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

⁸ And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

⁹ So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Now that we have gotten that doubt out of the way.  Let’s go back and claim the truth that God is rejoicing over me with joy, resting in the magnitude of His love; He is pouring out His Joy with singing over me.  Like a mother cradles her small child in her arms and singing a sweet, sweet song.  That is the very way God is singing over me with His comforting song of love and His perfect plans for my good.  Only He in His omniscient, omnipotent power knows what is the very best for me.  He who knows that my hope, my joy, and my peace are secured in my relationship to Him.  I can trust Him even when I don’t see or understand the plan.

Listen closely to the words of this song.  The chorus goes like this:

Oh, there is freedom in surrender, oh I know it
your songs have never stopped
You’ve been singing, always singing over me
Your words are still enough
And You’re singing
Give me faith
Give me strength enough to wait
To stand in faith
And listen for, listen for Your melody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb9XGwpZEXQ

There are two major keys that we need in order to help us avoid the pitfalls of pride which are remembering and forgetting our own frailties.  How do I remember and forget at the same time?  It is a matter of focus in the way that we remember and forget.   Whenever God blesses someone with great revelations or understanding, there is a tendency with human nature to begin to think too greatly of ourselves as though the hours of study, the applause of others, the hours of prayer spent, the trials overcome, the temptations we have overcome, and the resulting success had been somehow our own doing.  After all it is "my obedience which lead to my success and this position I now hold with God."  Or did it have anything to do with me?  Can I look at someone else’s Christian walk with criticism, comparing myself to them with some sense of pride?    Was that not what the Apostle warned against in I Corinthians 10, "¹² Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

Key #1 Remembering 

I need to remember that "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7:18).  This is when remembering all the times I have failed God truly stands as proof of my utter unworthiness before a Righteous God.  Were I to list for you my life’s horrendous failures as a Christian, I would be here all day; and I would give you reason for pride.  That would not be of any benefit to you. As I remember my own unworthiness; again, as Paul I must say "^{14 …}God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6) 

Therefore, I must remember the Glory and Righteousness of God which ever increasingly He reveals to me.  The more I know of Him, the more I realize the depth of darkness that lies within my own heart.  That in turn causes me to seek to know Him more because of His Mercy and Grace to this undeserving child.  It is only in that Grace that I might stand or perform anything good.  Not my own acts; but His Glory which reflects back to Him magnified as though reflected in a mirror.  This is not my own light; but reflects outward God’s Glory when and only when I empty myself of me.  This mirror is in constant need of polishing to keep the smudges from obscuring God’s reflection. 

When we remember our own frailty and our own past failures, Satan begins to whisper in our ears "You are such a failure, God can’t use you."  Then we risk becoming paralyzed, focus on our own inadequacies, and once more focus our eyes on ourselves. That is a sense of pride that perhaps my sins are bigger than Christ’s blood to cover them.  Suddenly, I see myself’s inabilities as bigger than God’s abilities.  It is then that we must apply forgetting.

Key #2 Forgetting

God has promised that "¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."  If I truly believe this, then though I may remember it was grace that saved me and grace that sustains me because I have nothing of my own that I can lay before the cross of which I can be proud; yet, His Grace bids me to stand in that Grace. It is upon His Grace I can stand, not my own works.  That reality bids me to forget the past and press forward.  "¹² Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3)

So, to avoid the pitfalls of pride we must remember where we came from.  Never can we cover up our own frailties and our own failures.  That way we can always remember that  "¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," (James 1)    It has never been because of my own deserving of that gift or my hard work paying off.  Then, I must not remain trapped there in my past; I must forget the power of my past sins and take on the righteousness of God to press forward.  As Hebrews 12 reminds us. "let us lay aside every weight (our guilt included), and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith"The more I exercise the keys of Remembering and Forgetting, the more I realize the depth of love that God has for me and the Joy He desires to share with me.  He becomes then my greatest treasure which I am drawn by His Love and Grace to seek Him with all my heart, my body, and my soul.  Only then can I drive stakes into this covetous, self exalting heart and stand by Grace Alone.  Romans 5:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

² By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

WHEN I CAME TO THE END OF ME

So many times I strayed  from you

And wondered what was I  to do

I tried so hard to do your will

I could not see I should stand still

What could I do to bring you a gift

The harder I tried, the more I’d drift

I reached that point, reality

I broke your heart, still you loved me

CHORUS:  When I didn’t have the strength

You were so strong

When my heart was filled with tears

You were my song

You are the love,

you are the peace,

you are the joy that flows in me

When I didn’t have a hope

At the end of my life’s rope

And I couldn’t find my way

Your Grace saved this wandering stray

And now I know a different me

It is your love that set me free

That in this world I might now see

All that you are, your majesty

When I came to the end of me

My love for you, Your love for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK_dwXcK86E

Almost all the self help books that one reads today, there is a theme which would point one toward a greater sense of self-esteem as the key to success.  We are urged to develop our sense of pride in who we are.  Whatever point of success, we pat ourselves on the back and say "Attaboy, you deserved the promotion for working so hard.  Or, "good job, look at me Lord.  Look what I have done for you."  Particularly, this happens during moments of prosperity; when the blessings are plenty and the trials are diminished.  The same was true of the journey of the Israelite Nation in the Old Testament.  We need not to look at these scriptures and say "Why did they grumble and fall down so much?"  Instead, we might want to look at these scriptures and say, "Wow, looks like me" and be encouraged by God’s Grace in dealing with them. We need to learn from their recorded mistakes so that we might learn to see the pitfalls and perhaps avoid some of them.  I would dare to say that sin is a result of lack in faith in God and results from our taking our eyes off of Him and placing them elsewhere.  Pride is one issue that causes us to take our eyes off of God–and causes us to look to ourselves; which is a disastrous move. Whenever I put my faith in me, I am following a fool. 

Proverbs 16: ¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

As the Israelite Nation was about to cross over Jordan to their promised land, Moses warned them. Deuteronomy 8: ¹¹ Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God,…

¹² Lest when thou hast eaten and art full…

¹⁴ Then thine heart be lifted up, …¹⁷ And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

¹⁸ But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power

Paul realized this.  He had been given great revelations regarding the gospel and was the one who wrote the largest portion of the New Testament through his letters to the churches.

2 Corinthians 12: 6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

⁷ And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

So for all of you seeking to find self-exalting, prosperity seeking religion; I have little to offer you, except the same warnings Moses gave the Israelite Nation–"Beware that you forget not the Lord thy God."   The counterfeit Joys you seek will leave you empty and brokenhearted in the end.  The only true Joy can be found in a relationship with God, our Creator.  Neither are we to wallow in our guilt becoming ineffective for God–but that we will discuss tomorrow as I help to give you the keys to learning how to as Paul "¹² I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LbHd6eZrgk&list=UU42mNOLo78vBCpPh34HSUTw&index=4

 

When I First Came to Know Him

 

When I first came to know him

So many years ago

I vowed that I would serve him

With heart and mind and soul

Then I found that in my strength

I would but only fail

Then He came and He told me

As we walked down life’s trail

1^st chorus

I’ll be your strength when you are weary

And your hope when skies are gray

I’ll be your faith when yours is failing

And your light on each dark day

I’ll be the love your lonely heart

When it’s breaking in despair

I’ll be all in all your everything

If you look to me in prayer

I strove on in my strength

And strayed so very far

Until my life was broken

And sin had left it’s scar

Then I cried, Oh, my Father

How deeply I had failed

Then He came and He held me

And His love prevailed

2^nd Chorus

Now He’s my strength when I am weary

And my hope when skies are gray

He is my faith when mine is failing

And my light on each dark day

He is the love to my lonely heart

When it’s breaking in despair

He is all in all my everything

When I look to him in prayer

 

Now if you have strayed from

Or never knew His love

Then turn your eyes toward Jesus

And seek Him from above

He will take all your brokenness

And fill it with Himself

He will take all your sin away

And fill each empty shelf.

3^rd Chorus

He’ll be your strength when you are weary

And your hope when skies are gray

He’ll be your faith when yours is failing

And your light on each dark day

He’ll be the love to your lonely heart

When it’s breaking in despair

He’ll be all in all your everything

If you look to Him in prayer

So often when we pray, we stand back and hand God a list of petitions or pleas.  We are so caught up in what we need and so distraught with the problems surrounding us.  The whispering thoughts of Satan’s doubts and lies fill our minds with hopelessness, fears, and dread.  Sometimes, like David, we need to just sit and marvel at the Grace, the Love, and Mercy of God.  Can we lay aside all these fears and focus on the Omniscient God who loves us completely and chose us out of the darkness before we were ever born.  Knowing every time I would stubbornly head off in the wrong direction, every time I would foolishly be beguiled to wander off, and every time I would doubt Him–He still chose me.  Never has He said– "Oops, I am so sorry I chose her–what a mess up she is." That is mercy and grace beyond measure.

Psalm 139: ¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

What an amazing thought.  For some of you the King James is difficult; but for this verse, all the versions I checked seemed to lose the savor.  Perhaps let me paraphrase these verses for you as I hear them. 

God, before I was ever born and from eternity past, You chose to take charge of my life.  What an incredible, unbelievable thought too great for me to imagine and I must fall before You in praise and worship for all You have done.  You saw me, even before the creation of the world, and You saw me with all my imperfections, my failures, my doubts, my sins. Still, You chose me to be written in Your book of Life.  So precious are the thoughts You have toward me, more numerous than I could ever say thank you enough for.  Because of all this I know that each and every morning when I awake, I am still Yours and You will be right there beside me.  My faith, my hope, my eternity is based on Your Uncompromising Grace toward me determined by You before I was ever born.  How could I ever repay such Love?  I can do no less than to surrender my life to You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWehzQbQ6IA