I just want to encourage you to do one thing today: ask God.
Ask Him for anything and everything. Ask Him for whatever it is you desire or need. Ask Him for the thing you would never admit to wanting, but long for desperately in your heart. Just ask Him. Go ahead!
Honestly, I feel really strongly about this. I really believe we ask too little of God, and try too hard to make things happen for ourselves. I’m not opposed to us trying to make things happen for ourselves, and sometimes that’s the way to do it, even as we pray for the Lord’s help in our doing.
However, too often we just don’t think God cares about our problems. We don’t think we deserve His help.
We think, “Well, I got myself into this mess, so I have to get myself out.” Or, we think we can only ask for “holy” things. We think all kinds of messed up things, and it’s robbing us of so much joy, peace and relationship.
You see, for me, that’s what it all boils down to: my relationship with God. When I share my need with Him, I am letting Him into my life in a very intimate way. Instead of Him being God in Heaven, far away, a mystical figure with a booming voice, He becomes the ultimate father, my heavenly Father, who sits with His arm around my shoulder, letting me pour my heart out as He forgives, restores, and answers.
Often, people will say, “Well, but what if it isn’t God’s will?” Well, then He won’t give it to you! But, don’t be afraid to ask Him, because you aren’t sure. He isn’t going to judge you for not knowing if it’s His will; your asking is actually a step towards knowing definitively if it is His will, or not!
And, remember: He is A GOOD FATHER! He’s gives us good things, just because HE IS GOOD, and loves to give to His children. He also delights in our faith, and responds generously—we can trust Him!
We are deep in the Christmas season, and it’s a time when the Body of Christ celebrates together the gift of God’s Son, and the salvation Christ won on the cross for us. It is the greatest gift anyone has ever, and could ever, give. It’s impossible to really grasp the magnitude of it, you know? It’s like trying to grasp the size of the ocean or space. It’s a love too vast to understand with our little, human brains!
Yet, that is the gift God gave us all. Think about that. He gives it even without us asking. He offers it to us just as we are, messy and sinful and failed. The greatest gift of all, to miserable wretches! If God loves you so much that He would give you salvation, how can you even doubt He loves you enough to give you His will? To meet your needs? To provide out of His abundance? We don’t deserve Christ, and we sure don’t deserve new shoes, but we get to ask Him for both. Salvation is a guaranteed “Yes,” new shoes, well, they might be just one ask away, but you won’t know, if you don’t ask.
So, go ahead. Ask!
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When we ask God for anything, we are affirming our relationship with Him as a good, kind, and loving Father. Matthew 7:11
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When we ask God to meet our needs, we are acknowledging Him as our Provider. Philippians 4:19
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When we ask God to heal our bodies, we are demonstrating our faith in the work of Christ on the cross, and the power of His shed blood. Isaiah 53:5
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When we ask God for the things we don’t think we deserve, we are declaring God’s unconditional love for us. Ephesians 3:20
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When we ask God to save us, we are confessing that we cannot save ourselves, and accepting the greatest gift ever given: God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 4:3-5
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Every hero of the faith has had to make an ultimate choice to trust God with everything. They had to be willing to risk it all—their dreams, their fortune, their health, their reputation, their very life.
I've come recently to a conclusion, based on my own testimony and experience, along with observation, and it's this: We, as Christians, reject God at every chance we get and justify it without any hesitation.
Sometimes the things we think we know the most about can be the things we actually know the least about. The Cross of Jesus Christ is just one of those things. It’s something we’ve read about and heard about, many of us, all our lives. One consequence of this familiarity, is a diminished sense of needing to know more. And so the ancient Christian discipline of meditating on the Cross rises to its deserved place of prominence only periodically through history, usually during times of persecution.
There is a popular, Christian colloquialism that says: Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the Devil says, “Oh, no!” You may have seen this, or something close to it, on a mug or plaque. It’s a very popular meme* on social media. I guess it’s meant to be motivational, but every time I see it I get kind of bothered.
INTRODUCTION
The most astounding thing about the subject of Christians drinking alcohol is the narrow focus that both sides of the discussion tend to stay on.
Satan is a mobster - a hit man - and he wants nothing more fervently than to rub you out. He’s a murderer, a liar, a gangster, and he’s got a contract out on your life. His final days as god of this world system are spent manically battling the angels of God for the souls of men. And if he can’t have your soul, he’ll settle for desecrating your call as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.