37 Days – He Will Do It

Those of you familiar with my writings in the past, I start out each year with the 37 Days of Prayer.  This program comes from Pastor Randy Harvey, of The Crossing Church in the Woodlands, Texas.  Each year Pastor Randy starts us off with 37 Days (10% of the year) in fasting, quiet time and focused prayer.  For the next 34 Days I will be posting his devotional and my journal entries and I encourage all of you to follow suit.  Read through Pastor Randy’s devotional and then capture your thoughts in a journal, on a notepad or on your digital device.  This will help center your mind, thoughts and heart for the year ahead.  You can also follow along (or jump ahead if you’d like by going directly to https://www.thecrossing.cc/37-days ). I hope you will find this invigorating and challenging to help strengthen your walk with Jesus Christ in 2018.



This weeks devotion from Pastor Randy:

Our Inheritance Awaits

Joshua and Caleb, members of the scouting party, ripped their clothes and addressed the assembled people of Israel: “The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And he’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!” Numbers 14:12

We also stand at the shores of our inheritance from the Lord—2018, the coming year with all its potential and possibilities. God’s promises await us. His provision is right here in front of us. It’s ours for the taking. However, He left giants on the land of inheritance to assure that only a people of faith in Him would possess it. As surely as you and I move toward the promises of God this year, giants will rise to attempt to keep us from our inheritance. Fear will surely leap in our hearts momentarily and voices—convincing voices—will speak to discourage us from believing our God.

Be strong and very courageous! The God who promised is faithful! He will give us the land and release His inheritance to us.

Israel never fully took all the land originally provided by the Lord. We too have outstanding promises we have not received. Let’s go get our inheritance! A promise remains and it’s ours for the taking.

“Let’s go up and take the land—now.”
“We can do it!”

This week, we will stir our courage and faith in God’s promises as we pray His Word over ourselves and our inheritance in 2018!

January 3^rd Prayer

“Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.”  - Psalm 37:4-5

Father God, I delight myself in You today! I find my joy, hope, encouragement, and faith in You. Today, I release the desires of my heart and ask You to give me Your desires. You are gracious to give me Your desires so that my prayer and focus is in sync with You. And, thank You! The burden is not on me to accomplish all the things You have placed in my heart. Your Word says You will do it. I believe that You will do it . . . in Jesus’ name!

My thoughts:

We’ve all been there a time or two.  That place where the challenge ahead seems daunting and impossible to overcome.  Where there is no visible solution to our problem, and every step we take seems to push us farther away from our objective or create additional complexities that prevent us from tasting the sweetness of victory.  It’s funny, those of us who claim to believe in the all powerful Creator of the Universe, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, look to our own knowledge to try and solve life’s challenges.  We are willing to accept, by faith and hope, that He will save our souls, but not willing to accept that He actually will help us achieve success and accomplish the desires of our heart.

Perhaps it’s because many times the desires of our heart are not aligned with His desires for your life, and therefore we realize that we are on our own in those situations.  If we reach out to Him in thoughtful prayer and humility, seeking the desires He has for our life, He promises to give them to us and to help us accomplish them.  Do you truly believe that your plan for your life is greater than His?  You believe that in your limited wisdom from your life experiences, you can plot out a better path than the Omnipotent, Omniscient Creator of the Universe?

Seek His wisdom, His counsel and His desires and He will give you the purpose and plan that is best designed for you.  Then trust that He loves you, and will accomplish great things through you.

Be Blessed,

Rich

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Words of a King - "Repent"

Read It, Learn It, Live It, Share It

“From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17

Do you want to know how amazing God is?
Last week, I was struggling with the inability of today’s society to trust and follow the examples that Jesus Christ left us with.  In our life we are purposed to grow and learn and become more Christlike, in our actions, in our words and in our spiritual journey.  Becoming more Christlike requires that we study and better understand the Messiah.  It requires that we accept Him as Lord and Savior, and acknowledge that He is who He says He is – the Son of the Most High God.  We must recognize the Holy Bible as the Word of God, and accept that the words contained there-in as truth.  Last week I began looking at the words of Christ and what they meant to me.  On Sunday, Pastor Randy Harvey (www.thecrossing.cc) preached his sermon on Matthew 4:17, which just happen to be the next words from Christ following the temptations in the wilderness that I discussed last week.

Jesus Christ walked this earth for 33 years and yet His ministry upon this earth was less than 3.  He was human and God at the same time, in the same place and existence.  We know little of his life between 12 and 30, but it is mentioned that he was the son of the carpenter Joseph, and thereby a conclusion may be drawn that he followed in his handicraft as a carpenter through those years.  As any Jewish boy of that era, he would have spent significant time in the Synagogue with his father, learning and memorizing the scriptures from the scrolls. 

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, and then tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days (see last week’s posts).  He then went on to Nazareth, the home city of his parents; Joseph and Mary, where he proclaimed fulfilling the prophecy from Isaiah.  This brought him rejection from those in Nazareth, and foretold the rejection he would receive from the nation of Israel in due time.  Jesus left Nazareth and went on to Capernaum where he spent a significant part of his life over the next 3 years.  In his first statements to the people of Capernaum he proclaims that the “Kingdom of God is at hand”. 

The Israelites had been 400 years without a prophet or a sign from God.  Living on their faith and strong beliefs passed on from generation to generation, these people in Capernaum on that day witnessed firsthand the unveiling of the Messiah, the King, the Anointed One.  By His authority, He proclaimed to the masses, what you have waited for has now begun.  In His words He preached repentance for the sins of mankind.  Turn from your wickedness and come from the darkness into the light.  Choose to seek the Kingdom first, rather than the ways of the world. 

The message to you and I has not changed.  Jesus has ushered in the Kingdom of God amongst mankind.  He has demonstrated the purity, the righteousness, the love and sacrifice of a life in the new Kingdom.  Just as the people of that day had longed for a King, a Messiah, to save them from the persecutions of this world, how much more are we the same.  We must repent, turn from our sinful ways, and follow His teaching, His words and His actions to become more Christ-like.  In doing so we become more aware of His Kingdom that is around us and what our part in that Kingdom is.  He is our one and only King, worthy of our praise, honor and glory.  We are His subjects, meant to serve and worship Him alone.

             

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