DOING THE DIFFICULT: KEEP FOCUSED ON GOD

INTRODUCTION

Some people love challenges. They’ll look at something new. Something hard. And they’ll take up the challenge of doing it just to get the satisfaction or thrill of knowing they can do something they’ve never done before. Something hard. Challenging. Exhilarating.

Just so you know, I am not that way at all. I am 1,000,000,000,000% a comfort-zone type of guy. I like doing the doable. That means it’s easy and doesn’t demand a whole lot of  my time, effort, or thinking. When it comes to what’s new, difficult, or challenging, you can generally count me out, folks. I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole!

I won’t do the difficult—not unless I’m forced to—because life already has too many difficulties and challenges. I don’t need to  add to them. I don’t need any more trials or challenges!  I’m heading into my golden years and I love to relax, take it easy, and do what I love doing most. Can you guess what that is? It’s studying  the Bible and writing. I just love spending time with the Lord because He talks to me a lot of times—not audibly, but in my spirit—and He tells me lots of really neat stuff. Stuff that I’ve just got to share with you. This blog is a perfect example of the stuff God gives me when I spend time with Him. I love Him. I love what I’m doing. But I dread doing the difficult.

Here’s a question for you. When the Lord asks you to do something difficult…no, strike that. When the Lord tells you to do something difficult, something you really don’t want to do, something you think is impossible to do, something that’s a Are you out of your mind? I can’t do that! type of thing; what do you do?

Just so you know, you’re not the only one who’s had to do something really really hard. You’re not alone. We’ve all been there and done that. The biblical characters weren’t any different from us. In fact, they were exactly like us: human. I’d like to draw on their life’s experiences and, from beyond the grave, as it were, let them share with us what we’ve got to do when the Lord gives us our Mission I M possible. By God’s grace, we can do what God’s counting on us to do! Here’s how.

 KEEP FOCUSED ON GOD

Yay! You’ve read my last post in this series and you’ve decided, like David, it’s high time to obey the Lord. You can’t put it off any longer. It’s been killing you. So you’ve said a prayer, taken a deep breath, and taken the first step towards obeying God. Good for you! God’s so proud of you, I’m sure! I know I am!

Now what? Well, if you haven’t already found out, WHENEVER YOU SET YOUR MIND AND HANDS TO OBEY THE LORD THE DEVIL WILL BE RIGHT THERE WITH YOU TO TRY AND STOP  YOU. HE’LL SCARE YOU. DISCOURAGE YOU. GIVE YOU ALL SORTS OF REASONS TO QUIT.

I wish it weren’t that way, but that’s just how nasty the devil is. You think God’s gonna be with you (and He is) and things are gonna go smooth (not necessary). Everything’s gonna turn out alright (eventually, but not always at first sight). But the devil is gonna do everything he can to stop that from happening. He’s fought you this hard and this long, preventing and prolonging your obedience to God. Do you think he’s gonna stop messing with you now that you’re actually obeying God? Not on your life! The devil’s gonna work harder to make things even harder for you. To make it look like it’s not gonna work. It ain’t gonna happen. You can’t do it.  It can’t be done. You may as well stop now before you make a bigger mess and fool of yourself, the devil says.

What are you gonna do? Who are you gonna believe and follow? Think the Lord led you wrong and gave you something truly impossible for you to do? Not on your life, mister! The devil’s a lying to you and you’d best not listen to him. Make the difficult choice and continue obeying God. You know what you’ve got to do. Keep focused on the mission. Get it done. And don’t let anyone or anything stop you from doing what you know you’ve got to do. Don’t get sidetracked or distracted. Shut the devil up. Don’t let him get into your mind and convince you you can’t get ‘er done. Keep leaning on God for grace, courage, and strength. Take it one step at a time. Keep doing what God’s telling you to do, even if you’re doing just a little bit at a time. As long as you do that you’ll eventually get ‘er done.

This reminds me of one of our Lord’s disciples named Peter. It’d been a really long day with the Lord ministering to gobs and gobs of people (Matthew 14:13-23). Evening was setting in. Jesus fed the five-thousand. Dusk was on it’s way—a beckoning reminder to all that it was time to wrap things up and call it a day. So Jesus sent His  twelve disciples in a boat across the Sea. He would stay on shore for a while, send the multitudes of folks on their way, then He would stay a while and pray by Himself. Eventually, He’ll meet up with the disciples on the other side.

It wasn’t long before things took a terrifying and disheartening turn for the worse (Matthew 14:24-33). A storm came up while the disciples were at sea. If you’ve ever been at sea or on the shoreline while it was storming you can very well imagine what was happening to the disciples as the waves and winds beat mercilessly against the boat, threatening to sink it. The disciples, I’m sure, to a man, were panic-stricken as they frantically bailed water out of the boat, rowed against the winds, and hung on for dear life. Wow! What an awful time to be alone, on your own, and not have Jesus around to bail you out! Talk about baaaad timing! I can see tempers flaring and mouths running loose. Why did Jesus send us across the sea at such a lousy time as this? This was one bad call!

Jesus, I’m sure, was very well aware of what was happening to His disciples out on the sea. But He continued praying until He was done praying. Finally, sometime between 3 AM and 6 AM, Jesus came to His disciples walking on the water! Remember it’s storming really bad. It’s dark. The disciples have been rowing for a good 7 to 9 hours. They tired and tuckered out. They weren’t in the best of moods.

Suddenly, in the faint moon light, they saw someone walking towards them on the water! It’s a ghost!, they all cried. But Jesus assured them it was He Himself for real (Matthew 14:25-27). I’m sure the disciples’ moods were instantly changed by the sight of their Lord. With Jesus came hope and the miracle of certain survival!

Well, Jesus was still a ways off from the boat. Even though the voice was familiar, the form wasn’t entirely clear to the disciples. Peter, for one, wasn’t totally sure that it really was Jesus. People can’t walk on water! That’s impossible! But ghosts can! This guy’s got to be a ghost!  Peter’s unconvinced it’s really Jesus. So he decided that if it was really Jesus walking out there on the water, then, Jesus had better prove it by telling Peter to come to Him walking on the water (Matthew 14:28). Peter must’ve figured if Jesus could walk on water, then he could too! Like I said in my intro, some guys thrive on challenges. So Jesus gives the order. Come!

Amazingly, for a guy who must’ve battled fear many times while out on the sea  during a storm, Peter mustered the courage and faith, got out of the boat, and started walking towards Jesus! Peter was actually walking on water! He was doing something that was ordinarily, humanly impossible! Like Jesus told us, WE CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE AS LONG AS WE BELIEVE (Matthew 17:20, Mark 9:23).

Now everything to this point has been unimaginably, excruciating difficult. But walking on water will be Peter’s worst nightmare. Now he’s got no boat protecting him from sinking. The other disciples aren’t close enough to him to hold on to him. He’s gonna survive this storm and walk on water strictly on his own faith. Nothing else is holding him up. He’ll sink if he gets skeptical. He’ll drown if he doubts.

Peter does fine as long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus. As long as he stays focused on Christ he’ll succeed.

But, like many of us, Peter succumbs to the temptation of looking around at the awful circumstances that he’s faced with. He takes his eyes off of  Jesus, looks at the winds and waves, and, you guessed it, he begins to sink.

Matthew 14:29-31 tells the story this way: So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.  (30)  But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.  (31)  Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt Me?”

BRETHREN, WHEN YOU GET YOUR EYES OFF OF JESUS YOU’LL GET SCARED EVERYTIME. LOOKING AT BAD CIRCUMSTANCES IS BAD FOR YOUR FAITH. FOCUSING ON WHAT’S HARD WILL MAKE THE TASK EVEN HARDER. THINKING ABOUT THE FEARFUL WILL MAKE YOU FEARFUL. AND FEAR WILL KEEP YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU’VE SET OUT TO DO. IT’LL STOP YOU AND SINK YOU.

Do you wanna know how to do the difficult? Just do it and keep your eyes focused on Jesus. Concentrate on getting the job done.

I know that’s easier said than done. But I’m no armchair theologian. I’ve been there and I know what it’s like to be really, really scared. But I tell you this. Like the disciples rowing frantically and fearfully in the sea, Jesus will come to you in the midst of your fears and help you! You’re never alone! You belong to Him and He will not leave you on your own. He’ll always come to the rescue. Let these truths sink into your heart and mind and let them anchor your ship in the troubled storms of life.

The alternative isn’t pretty. If you take your eyes off of the Lord and look at all the obstacles, difficulties, and fears that the devil’s putting in your way, you’re gonna get scared. Naturally. And when you’re scared you’ll begin to lose your faith. You’ll start doubting God. Friends, YOU CAN’T DO THE DIFFICULT WHEN YOU’RE FEARFUL AND DOUBTFUL. THE DIFFICULT CAN BE DONE ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE AND KEEP ON BELIEVING. YOU’LL LOSE FAITH WHEN YOU’RE LOOKING AT CIRCUMSTANCES INSTEAD OF CHRIST.

Keep your eyes, mind, and entire being focused on Jesus and the mission and you’ll accomplish the mission. As long as you do that, like Peter walking on the water, all the bad stuff that’s happening around you, trying to stop you, will not be able to stop you from accomplishing your mission. You will succeed when your mind and entire being are set on obeying the Lord.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you were encouraged and emboldened in the Lord. I pray God help you stay focused and give you the grace to look at nothing else but Him. He’ll get you through as long as you’re depending and focused on Him. God bless you dearly.

DOING THE DIFFICULT: SURRENDER TO GOD

INTRODUCTION

Some people love challenges. They’ll look at something new. Something hard. And they’ll take up the challenge of doing it just to get the satisfaction or thrill of knowing they can do something they’ve never done before. Something hard. Challenging. Exhilirating.

Just so you know, I am not that way at all. I am 1,000,000,000,000% a comfort-zone type of guy. I like doing the doable. That means it’s easy and doesn’t demand a whole lot of  my time, effort, or thinking. When it comes to what’s new, difficult, or challenging, you can generally count me out, folks. I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole! 

I won’t do the difficult—not unless I’m forced to—because life already has too many difficulties and challenges. I don’t need to  add to them. I don’t need any more trials or challenges!  I’m heading into my golden years and I love to relax, take it easy, and do what I love doing most. Can you guess what that is? It’s studying  the Bible and writing. I just love spending time with the Lord because He talks to me a lot of times—not audibly, but in my spirit—and He tells me lots of really neat stuff. Stuff that I’ve just got to share with you because, in my heart, I know He’s talking to all of us. This blog is a perfect example of the stuff God gives me when I spend time with Him. I love Him. I love what I’m doing. But I dread doing the difficult.

Here’s a question for you. When the Lord asks you to do something difficult…no, strike that. When the Lord tells you to do something difficult, something you really don’t want to do, something you think is impossible, something that’s a Are you out of your mind? I can’t do that! type of thing; what do you do?

Just so you know, you’re not the only one who’s had to do some something really, really hard. You’re not alone. We’ve all been there and done that. The biblical characters weren’t any different from us. In fact, they were exactly like us. Human. I’d like to draw on their life’s experiences and, from beyond the grave, as it were, let them share with us what we’ve got to do when the Lord gives us our Mission I M possible. By God’s grace, we can do what God’s counting on us to do! Here’s how.

SURRENDER TO GOD

Not everything that’s hard to do is hard to do. Huh? Run that by me again. You heard me. Not everything that’s hard to do is hard to do. Sometimes the easiest things, the doable things that we’ve done countless times before, can be the hardest thing to do.

Sickness is a good example. I was in bed for six weeks and when I stood up to go from one room to another, or wash a hand full of plates, I was so tuckered I had to sit down immediately. Being sick, weak, or diseased is a perfect illustration of how the doable things in life can be very difficult to do.

What I’m talking about here, though, is when we have an attitude problem. You ever have a kid who thought that taking out the trash, or cleaning her room, or mowing the lawn, was out-of-this-world impossible for them to do? We can relate, can’t we? Well, like kids sometimes, okay, maybe lots of times, we’re not in the mood. We’re not surrendered or submitted to God. We want what we want and when God tells us otherwise, wow, it’s the hardest thing to obey God.

When God tells us to do something that we really don’t want to do, if we’re His children, we can rest assured that God is eventually gonna have His own way. He has His Ways and Means Committee and He knows exactly what He has to do to get us to change our mind and get us to obey Him. Jonah is a perfect example. If we’re stubborn and hardheaded enough it may take God years to change our mind. Years with a lot of chastisements and convictions. But for those of us who are a little more supple and who don’t enjoy God’s chastening, it doesn’t take a whole lot of time or persuasion for us to change our mind and agree to do things God’s way.

When we’ve got our mind made up and God tells us to do otherwise, the first and smart thing to do is  get alone with God in prayer. You can try and change God’s mind if you like, but it’s not gonna work. Pray instead for a change of your heart and mind. Surrender your will to God’s will. And ask God for the grace, strength, and desire to do His will.

  • I  love the promise of Philippians 2:13. It lets us know that, when we don’t want to do God’s will, or when we think we lack the power or strength to do His will, God does something to us—He changes our mind—so that we become willing to do His will. Here’s how the verse reads, For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.
  • Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we can pray and ask God for grace, mercy, and help whenever we need it. And the really neat thing about it is, we’ll get it! God will give us all the strength we need to do His will. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I love the word there. Don’t overlook it. You get God’s grace and mercy there. Where? At His Throne. That means in prayer. You’ve done a lot of bellyaching. Have you gone to God and prayed? You get the grace when you pray.

Do you think God’s really being unreasonable with you and asking you to do something you can’t possibly do? I mean no offence, dear friend, but you’re wrong. WHEN GOD TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING HE GIVES YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO THE JOB: a willing heart, a willing mind, and all the strength you need to get the job done. If you have none of the above, then it’s yours for the asking! This is one prayer God will definitely answer!

Jesus came to earth knowing all along what He had to do. He knew His life would eventually take Him to Calvary. That’s where His life, His work, would end as far as the earthly aspect of His mission was concerned. It would end with a death that was violent, painful, and horrible-beyond-description-or-imagination. It was a death that was truly abhorrent in every way. And feared. When you factor in the spiritual dimension of His death–the weight of the world’s sins on Him, the hellish punishment of everyone’s sins, and the Father abandoning Him for a time (which, to that point in time, the Father had never done before), then you can imagine a little of the dread or apprehension that Calvary was to Jesus.

Moments before He was arrested, Jesus got alone with the Father and prayed, Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matthew 26:39). He was talking about the cup of suffering that the Father had appointed for Him to drink. There was a part of Jesus in His humanity that didn’t want to go through the suffering. It was a very difficult thing for Him to do and His first inclination was to not do it. I don’t think I’m wrong or blasphemous to say that Jesus didn’t want to do it. Let this cup pass from Me sure makes it look like Jesus wanted out.

But, and here’s the important thing, even though Jesus didn’t want to go through with Calvary, He wanted one thing more than His desire or will and that was He wanted to obey the Father. Obeying God trumped all the thoughts, emotions, and desires that He was feeling at the time. More than wanting out of Calvary, He wanted to obey His Father and He resigned Himself to obeying Him. He surrendered His own will to submit to, and do, His Father’s will. 

Remember. This scene was played out three times (Matthew 26:39-43). Jesus wrestled and pleaded with the Father three times. We’ve done that ourselves. We’ve tried to change God’s mind about something several times before. But we finally gave up and surrendered to His will when we saw God wasn’t budging. Like I said, you can try and change God’s mind if you like. It’s not gonna work.

Remember also that Gethsemane came before Calvary. Before Jesus suffered He surrendered. Submission preceded obedience.

Beloved, SURRENDER AND SUBMISSION COME BEFORE OBEDIENCE. Some of you can’t obey God, some aren’t obeying God, because you haven’t surrendered your will to God.

GOD ISN’T ASKING YOU TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE. EVERYTHING HE ASKS YOU TO DO IS DOABLE. YOU CAN DO IT!

But, like I said at the start, even the easiest or most doable of things become really hard when our attitude stinks. 

So if obeying God is a really, really difficult thing for you to do, chances are you need to surrender your will to God. You have to go to your Gethsemane first and say Not my will, but Thine be done. Brethren, you can do God’s will. But only when you set your will aside and realize that DOING GOD’S WILL IS THE BEST POSSIBLE THING YOU CAN DO.  God bless you and help you do His will.

FIGHTING OUR GOLIATHS PART 6

The following post is a continuation of Fighting Our Goliaths Part 5. I’m dealing with the things we can do to cultivate a habit of courage and faith.

3. DAVID FOUGHT BECAUSE OF WHAT HE WAS FIGHTING FOR. Instead of doing what comes naturally and instinctively to human nature when one’s life is being threatened—that is, run; David chose to stay and fight. Why? Because, like a true shepherd, DAVID CARED FOR THE SHEEP.

What’s even more astounding is the fact that DAVID WASN’T WILLING TO LOSE SO MUCH AS ONE LAMB. Count it. One lamb! Look at verses 34 and 35 again, And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: {35} And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. One lamb mattered to David and he wasn’t willing to lose so much as one lamb among many.

Now some of us would choose to stand our ground and fight a hungry, angry lion or bear for the sake of our sheep—as long as we could do it from a distance with the help of a powerful, semi automatic gun and scope. David did that with his sling. He wasn’t foolish. He fought from a distance with his sling. That’s what it was for and he fought wisely and responsibly.

But on this particular occasion, the wounded beast turned on David and David found himself in close, hand-to-hand combat with a lion. How many of you would volunteer to wrestle with a wounded, angry lion? David did it and, with God’s help, he managed to kill that crazed, murderous beast. We call that kind of wrestling crazy, stupid, and senseless! We could have gotten killed!

But, in the interest of saving one lamb, David looked to his God, then went on the attack, and came out victorious with his one lamb intact and alive. DAVID’S LOVE FOR HIS SHEEP, I’M SAYING, WAS WHAT PROMPTED HIM TO TUSSLE WITH THE LION AND THE BEAR.

In the spiritual realm, we are faced with all sorts of menacing lions called demons who are out to forcibly and defiantly rob us of what is ours. Our faith in God. Our fear of God. Our desire and commitment to obey God. Our moral purity. Our loyalty and faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Our love for an uncompromised Word. Our discernment. Our spiritual hunger for  the  things of  the Lord.  Our presence  and participation in the local church. Our witness and testimony to this world of an omnipotent, faithful, promise-keeping, soul-saving, body-healing, family-preserving, God. The Devil is out to rob us of our spouse. Our children. Our marriage. Brethren, these are our lambs. They are the lambs that God has called us to shepherd, nurture and protect.

If we don’t love our lambs enough, if we’re more concerned about saving our life instead of saving our lambs; then we’re going to end up losing a whole lot of lambs because the Devil isn’t going to stop with one lamb. He isn’t going to be satisfied with taking two or three of our lambs. THE DEVIL’S AFTER THE WHOLE FLOCK! And he’s going to keep on attacking, robbing, afflicting, inflicting, and devouring until he’s gotten everything that we’re willing to let him have.

WHAT LAMBS ARE YOU WILLING TO LOSE, BRETHREN? HOW MANY OF YOUR LAMBS ARE YOU WILLING TO FORFEIT AND GIVE INTO THE JAWS OF THE LION OR THE BEAR? Will you give the Devil your lamb of faith? Your lamb of purity? Commitment? Love? Obedience? What fruit of the Spirit, what Christian virtue, are you willing to lose and live without? Friends, you’ve got to hold on to every one of your lambs! You can’t afford to let the Devil have any one of them! Like David, love your lambs enough. Then go out there in the Name and the strength of the Lord, tussle with the lion and bear, and GET YOUR LAMBS BACK! DON’T SETTLE FOR LOSING SO MUCH AS ONE OF YOUR LAMBS!  

4. THE MORE DAVID FOUGHT, THE BETTER HE GOT.  David’s tussles with the lion and bear prepared him for his tussle with Goliath. Each fight helped him develop good fighting skills with the staff, the sling, and the knife. HE GOT BETTER WITH EACH FIGHT. AND EACH FIGHT PREPARED HIM FOR THE NEXT. THE SMALLER ONES PREPARED HIM FOR THE BIGGER ONES. And the bigger ones prepared him for the lone  Goliath that now stood before him in the Valley of Elah. BY THE TIME DAVID MET UP WITH HIS GOLIATH DAVID WAS TRAINED, PREPARED, AND EQUIPPED TO FIGHT BECAUSE HE MADE IT HIS LIFE’S HABIT TO STAY AND FIGHT AND WIN!

Best of all, THROUGH ALL OF HIS TRIALS AND EXPERIENCES AS A SHEPHERD DAVID LEARNED TO LOOK TO GOD AND TRUST HIM FOR PRESERVATION AND VICTORY NO MATTER WHO OR WHAT HE WAS UP AGAINST. His confidence of the victory, or his knowledge of how the fight would end, wasn’t based on his skills or his fearlessness. It wasn’t about David. For him, it was all about God and what God would do for him. Look at verse 37, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

WITH EACH FIGHT FOUGHT, WITH EACH FIGHT WON, DAVID LEARNED IN A RESOLUTE, IRREVOCABLE, UNWAVERING MANNER THAT GOD WAS FAITHFUL IN EVERY FIGHT. His power to deliver was not limited by the size or strength of the foe. By the name or severity of the battle. By the destructiveness or winsome way of the enemy. DAVID LEARNED THAT IN EVERY FIGHT, IN EVERY VALLEY, GOD WOULD SHOW HIMSELF STRONG ON DAVID’S BEHALF AND DELIVER EVERY FOE INTO HIS HAND EVERY TIME.

Brethren, YOUR LIFE’S BATTLES AND TRIALS, LIKE DAVID’S, ARE MEANT TO FILL YOU WITH COURAGE AND FAITH. They’re meant to teach you to look to God and trust Him for the help, the wisdom, and the victory. To show you God’s faithfulness,  power,  and   glory   in   the midst of overwhelming odds and circumstances. To strengthen you even more in faith. To make you a fighter who’s not hampered by fear, or worry, or despair. To teach you that the battles and trials you face in the present are no different from all the others you faced in the past: God brought you through those trials and He’ll bring you through these ones as well! He will not fail or forsake you! To convince you in a resolute and irrevocable faith that God is Victor in every valley, He’s faithful in every fight, He’s triumphant in every trial, He’s powerful over every Philistine, He’s greater  than  any Goliath.  Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!  Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?  Nothing is too hard or difficult for Him to do. The battle belongs to the Lord. He will deliver Goliath into your hand!

Brethren, just as God granted David the victory in every trial despite the severity and ferocity of the trial; so this same God is willing to do the same for every David today who’s willing to trust Him and stay put, stand his ground, and fight in the Lord’s Name for the Lord’s glory. God is no respecter of persons. What He did yesteryear He will do today. But, like David, you’ve got to look to the Lord and fight your battles with the resolute faith and determination that the battle can end one, and only one, way—in victory for you and in defeat for your foe. May God bless you with the will, the courage, and the faith to believe!  And fight! And win!

[I’ve got two more soul-stirring, faith-inspiring posts on Fighting Our Goliaths. Lord willing, I’ll be posting them sometime around the 1st of June. In these final two posts I deal with some practical things we can do to get rid of fear and revive faith in our heart. If you have a problem with fear, like most of us do, you’ll definitely want to drop by around June 1 and get spiritually renewed to bring this giant down. With God’s help you can do it! See you then!]