Right now, what is 1 thing you want? If Christmas was tomorrow, what would be on the top of your list?
Now, what is 1 thing you need right now?
Do you understand the difference?
Right now, I want a new Palm Treo 700 so I can combine my phone, planner and email all into 1 tiny package and I can go anywhere with it. However, I don’t really need it as I already have a phone, a pda and a laptop. They may not be the most up to date or in best working condition, but I have them already, they work fine and they don’t cost anything extra.
Today, we are going to look at God and how he wants to provide for us and take care of us in all situations in life. We are going to look at 2 Bible passages and, as I read them, I want you to listen for who God is. Remember, we are talking about foundational truths about who God is. Truths that will allow us to turn to God.
Scripture
Read Matthew 7:7-11
1. How are we described?
2. How does that contrast with God?
3. If, then, we are evil, yet capable of doing good and God is good, what does that mean he will do for us?
4. What do we have to do to get God’s provision?
We have to go before God and ask him to provide for us. He is the perfect father who wants to meet all our needs. He wants to give us all things and bless us beyond measure, but we first have to ask and seek him out.
I do want to say, though, that he wants to meet all our needs, not all our wants. We may want a brand new BMW 315i, but what you need is just a car to get you to school, work and home. You may want a brand new iPod, but you don’t need it. There is a difference between our needs and our wants.
He provides for our needs, not our wants. I will say, sometimes our wants and our needs are the same, but I just want to make clear that God isn’t Santa Claus.
So, God wants to provide for us. What we have to ask and seek Him out. Not only is God someone who will provide for us. But, he is also something else.
Let’s look to see what else is true about God.
Read Proverbs 3:5-6
If we have already asked and sought God out, what else do we have to do? Trust Him
What will happen when we trust in God? He will make our path straight
What does that mean? He will guide us down the right path for our life.
Application
Based on these 2 readings, what do we know to be true about God?
In God, we have a Father we can trust who wants to provide for us. He wants to meet our needs. What we have to do is to
· ask Him,
· trust Him and
· seek His ways.
We may not always understand them – as they are often not our ways. But He will make our path straight and will meet our needs when we trust Him.
So, now knowing that He wants to provide for you, what is 1 thing you can trust God with this week? What can you give over to him? College selections, decisions about friendships, dating relationships, money issues can all be given over to God.
Write it down, share with a friend and give it over to God. Then, see how God provides for you this week.
Remember, God opens and shuts doors for us so that we will know which way to go. The key is that we ask Him, trust Him and seek His ways. Only that way, we can know which way to turn. Only that way, can we stand firm in our faith in God.
Pray
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Job's Authentic Faith
****This Devotional Blog ties in with my Podcast, "Job's Authentic Faith" at http://tompounder.podomatic.com/ or go to iTunes and type in Tom Pounder under the Podcast menu.****
Opening Question:
What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Please don’t answer aloud as it might be extremely personal, and, let’s be honest, how often do we keep tallies of the top 10 worse things that ever happened to us? Rarely.
But, think to yourself some of the worst things that have ever happened to you. Now, think, how did you respond to those events? Did you shut down, did you get angry, did you get wasted? What did you do?
Our faith in God and how we respond to our circumstances are directly related. To see how they relate, we are going to look at a man named Job.
Scripture
Read Job 1:13-22
What happened to Job? Let’s recount the tragedies in Job’s life:
1. His cattle and servants were killed
2. His sheep and servants were killed
3. His camels were stolen and servants killed
4. All his children were killed
Can you say bad day?!? How did Job respond?
· He tore his clothes, shaved his head
· Then, he worshipped God and did not sin
What doesn’t correlate here? What about Job’s response doesn’t make sense?
· After all the tragedy, he worshipped God
· I don’t know about you, and I’m a committed believer, but I don’t think I would be worshipping God right after all this has happened to me. I can think of many things I would do, but that isn’t one of the.
· I’m just being honest. I think I would eventually get to that point, but not immediately…not like Job
It’s bad enough that he lost all his profitability by losing his cattle, sheep and camels. Throw on to that the loss of all his children! I’ve know people who have lost a few loved ones over the course of a year – and that is bad, but to lose all your children in 1 day is insane.
And, what did he do? He worshipped God and didn’t sin!
Why would he do such a thing?!?
Because of his faith in God! I know it is hard to understand, but as Job said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
He counted everything that he had as given to him from God – his cattle, wealth, and children as a gift from God. “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.” Do you have this mindset?
Application
What can we learn from Job?
Our faith in God should never be determined by our circumstances. Good things and bad things are going to happen to you in life. Just because you go through a rough stretch doesn’t mean that God isn’t there and isn’t with you. On the contrary, he is there and he wants to help. Remember what we talked about last week – he understands and wants to help.
So, the next time something wacked happens to you, how are you going to respond? Are you going to bag what you know to be true about God because times are tough or are you going to stay strong with God knowing that at the very least, He:
· Understands what you are going through and can help you (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He gives us grace (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He loves us no matter what
In fact, right now, think of one circumstance, one thing in your life right now that you can commit over to God and trust Him to help you prevail. Write it down and pray that God will help you through it.
When we stay strong in our faith in God, he will help us overcome. He helped Job.
Read Job 42:12-15
“The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.”
God is there always and wants to help. He will provide, as He did with Job. The question is, will you give God the chance to provide and help you overcome?
Don’t give up on God!
Pray
Opening Question:
What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Please don’t answer aloud as it might be extremely personal, and, let’s be honest, how often do we keep tallies of the top 10 worse things that ever happened to us? Rarely.
But, think to yourself some of the worst things that have ever happened to you. Now, think, how did you respond to those events? Did you shut down, did you get angry, did you get wasted? What did you do?
Our faith in God and how we respond to our circumstances are directly related. To see how they relate, we are going to look at a man named Job.
Scripture
Read Job 1:13-22
What happened to Job? Let’s recount the tragedies in Job’s life:
1. His cattle and servants were killed
2. His sheep and servants were killed
3. His camels were stolen and servants killed
4. All his children were killed
Can you say bad day?!? How did Job respond?
· He tore his clothes, shaved his head
· Then, he worshipped God and did not sin
What doesn’t correlate here? What about Job’s response doesn’t make sense?
· After all the tragedy, he worshipped God
· I don’t know about you, and I’m a committed believer, but I don’t think I would be worshipping God right after all this has happened to me. I can think of many things I would do, but that isn’t one of the.
· I’m just being honest. I think I would eventually get to that point, but not immediately…not like Job
It’s bad enough that he lost all his profitability by losing his cattle, sheep and camels. Throw on to that the loss of all his children! I’ve know people who have lost a few loved ones over the course of a year – and that is bad, but to lose all your children in 1 day is insane.
And, what did he do? He worshipped God and didn’t sin!
Why would he do such a thing?!?
Because of his faith in God! I know it is hard to understand, but as Job said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
He counted everything that he had as given to him from God – his cattle, wealth, and children as a gift from God. “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.” Do you have this mindset?
Application
What can we learn from Job?
Our faith in God should never be determined by our circumstances. Good things and bad things are going to happen to you in life. Just because you go through a rough stretch doesn’t mean that God isn’t there and isn’t with you. On the contrary, he is there and he wants to help. Remember what we talked about last week – he understands and wants to help.
So, the next time something wacked happens to you, how are you going to respond? Are you going to bag what you know to be true about God because times are tough or are you going to stay strong with God knowing that at the very least, He:
· Understands what you are going through and can help you (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He gives us grace (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He loves us no matter what
In fact, right now, think of one circumstance, one thing in your life right now that you can commit over to God and trust Him to help you prevail. Write it down and pray that God will help you through it.
When we stay strong in our faith in God, he will help us overcome. He helped Job.
Read Job 42:12-15
“The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.”
God is there always and wants to help. He will provide, as He did with Job. The question is, will you give God the chance to provide and help you overcome?
Don’t give up on God!
Pray
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
David: Commited to God
Opening Questions:
Over the past few weeks we have been going over the life of David. We have seen him in the good times and the bad times.
As we wrap up the summer series and the life of David, I want to review some key concepts and thoughts presented.
Question 1: Why was David chosen to be king?
Question 2: Why did David believe God would help him defeat Goliath?
Question 3: Why was Saul jealous of David?
Question 4: What was one of the 3 friendship characteristics that Jonathan showed David?
Question 5: What is 1 of the 2 things children can do to help contribute to healthy families? Question 6: What was the legacy that David left Solomon?
So, what do these concepts have to do with anything? Why should we care what happened to David or how he led his life?
Scripture
Well, let me as you this, as you look over the whole of David’s life, what stands out to you?
The thing that stood out to me was David’s commitment to God. Through the great times – being anointed king, beating Goliath and winning many battles, he kept His focus on God. In fact, I would venture to say that he was blessed because of his commitment and dedication to God.
But also in the bad times – when his sin with Bathsheba became known and when Absalom took over the Kingdom, David kept his commitment and devotion to God. He definitely strayed for a moment or so, but he quickly turned back to God
David’s life correlates directly with what it says in the Bible.
Read Joshua 1:8 – "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
· By following God and using the Bible, the handbook for life, we will prosper and succeed in life – maybe not with wealth and riches, but we will succeed.
· It is when we turn our back on God’s plan, when things don’t quite go “as planned”.
· David epitomizes this – when he was following God, success followed. When he followed his own way, consequences followed.
When David was committed to God and his plan – his ways, David succeeded
When he strayed, things fell apart.
Application
Over this past summer, we have seen David’s commitment to God. Where is your commitment to God? Are you going after God’s plan and trust in his ways or are you still trying to figure out how you are going to make your life into something great.
Through the good and the bad, David constantly turned to God for direction and guidance.
Where do you turn? When good or bad things happen do you turn to God for guidance and direction or do you turn your back on Him and seek after temporary fixes?
We have to fix our eyes constantly on Christ to reap the rewards for following that is what David did. He kept his eyes fixed on God. Sure, he failed God occasionally, but he always returned to God.
What is 1 thing you can do this week to put your trust in God – as David did. Regardless of whether you feel like you are succeeding or failing, by putting our trust in God’s plan for our life, we can know for sure we are headed down the right path.
Pray
Over the past few weeks we have been going over the life of David. We have seen him in the good times and the bad times.
As we wrap up the summer series and the life of David, I want to review some key concepts and thoughts presented.
Question 1: Why was David chosen to be king?
Question 2: Why did David believe God would help him defeat Goliath?
Question 3: Why was Saul jealous of David?
Question 4: What was one of the 3 friendship characteristics that Jonathan showed David?
Question 5: What is 1 of the 2 things children can do to help contribute to healthy families? Question 6: What was the legacy that David left Solomon?
So, what do these concepts have to do with anything? Why should we care what happened to David or how he led his life?
Scripture
Well, let me as you this, as you look over the whole of David’s life, what stands out to you?
The thing that stood out to me was David’s commitment to God. Through the great times – being anointed king, beating Goliath and winning many battles, he kept His focus on God. In fact, I would venture to say that he was blessed because of his commitment and dedication to God.
But also in the bad times – when his sin with Bathsheba became known and when Absalom took over the Kingdom, David kept his commitment and devotion to God. He definitely strayed for a moment or so, but he quickly turned back to God
David’s life correlates directly with what it says in the Bible.
Read Joshua 1:8 – "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
· By following God and using the Bible, the handbook for life, we will prosper and succeed in life – maybe not with wealth and riches, but we will succeed.
· It is when we turn our back on God’s plan, when things don’t quite go “as planned”.
· David epitomizes this – when he was following God, success followed. When he followed his own way, consequences followed.
When David was committed to God and his plan – his ways, David succeeded
When he strayed, things fell apart.
Application
Over this past summer, we have seen David’s commitment to God. Where is your commitment to God? Are you going after God’s plan and trust in his ways or are you still trying to figure out how you are going to make your life into something great.
Through the good and the bad, David constantly turned to God for direction and guidance.
Where do you turn? When good or bad things happen do you turn to God for guidance and direction or do you turn your back on Him and seek after temporary fixes?
We have to fix our eyes constantly on Christ to reap the rewards for following that is what David did. He kept his eyes fixed on God. Sure, he failed God occasionally, but he always returned to God.
What is 1 thing you can do this week to put your trust in God – as David did. Regardless of whether you feel like you are succeeding or failing, by putting our trust in God’s plan for our life, we can know for sure we are headed down the right path.
Pray
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