The book of Job is rough. Job is attacked from every side. His children die, his wife leaves and his friends constantly throw accusations at him. We often read the book of Job and think, “Why would God allow that to happen to someone he cares for? Why would He allow His servant to be destroyed?” OR we can read it and think, “God had so much confidence in Job that He allowed Job’s life to be used to speak to everyone around him.” Through pain and destruction, Job’s life was a testimony.
Let's talk for a bit about changing your perspective.
I was talking to someone about Pentecost a while ago and he said that he was jealous of the fact that I can communicate with my God. Do you realize how incredibly awesome that is?! I know, you’re used to it and the splendor has worn off but can we just get a little excited about that for a minute? Can we recognize how incredibly lucky we are to have a God that we can communicate with? Allah, Brahma Buddha; they’re all dead.
Isaiah 57:13 says, “When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!” When I’m in trouble I’m not going to call Abraham Lincoln to come rescue me. Do you know why? Yes, because he’s dead and no one is going to answer.
“...so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11
You know why that happens? Why every knee bows and every tongue confesses? Right, because He is alive. The name has no power if the god wielding it is dead. How incredible that I get to pray to a living God!
I don’t get to dress like my friends. I don’t get to go to parties. I don’t get to sleep in because I have to pray. I don’t get to go out with co workers. I don’t get to, I don’t get to, I don’t get to….
OR
I get to sacrifice all these things because I know, I KNOW the name that is above every name. I know the one who saves, restores, and renews. I get to wake up early and talk to my God and spend time with Him and learn His heart when I study the Bible. I get to communicate with my God because He is alive. I get to have peace in chaos and joy when I should be in sorrow. I GET TO!
Change your perspective.
Stop looking at your life, at the sacrifices you’re asked to make, your duty to pray and study your Bible, weekly bible study, youth nights, Sunday service, your modesty, your self control, as 'have to’s' and change your perspective because you get to serve the only living God. You don’t serve a god but you get to serve THE God. Every other god is dead. How incredibly blessed are you to serve the one who created every single thing in existence.
My pastor said a while ago not to love anything that can’t love you back. That collection of idols in Isaiah that we read about aren’t just made up of gods like Allah, Brahma, and Buddha. You have some dead gods too. They’re stealing your attention, your time and your promise. Next time you're in trouble why don’t you call out to your playstation and see if it answers. Call on the name of Tik Tok and Grey’s Anatomy and see if they show up in the midnight hour.
Change your perspective.
John 8: 1-11 says,
"1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”"
There’s a song by Tye Tribbett that says, “If I never heard the sound of grace before, I heard it when the rocks hit the ground.” It’s not my place to condemn you, if Jesus doesn’t condemn then who I am to? Change your perspective before it becomes too hard. Too hard to pray, too hard to worship, too hard to set foot in the house of God. God’s grace covers your past, it covers your future. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done but notice what Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
He doesn’t care what you’ve done, He cares what you’re doing.
Moses was used by God in some pretty incredible ways. He delivered an entire nation from slavery and yet he was not allowed to enter the promised land. In Deuteronomy 32:52, God tells Moses, “For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.” God tells Moses that he broke faith with Him and did not treat Him as Holy.
Can we change our perspective, our habits, before we lose our our promised land. God will always forgive you, His grace will always cover you, He can always use you but you need to ask for it before you lose your promise. Before you’ve gone so deep that it takes a lifetime for God to pull you out.
Do you want to just make it to Heaven or do you want to fulfill the promise on your life? I don’t want to barley make it through those pearly gates! I want to be God's BFF. I want to be his favorite person and when I meet Him, I want Him to say, “well done”.
I wrote this while I was doing dishes the other day but it was only like halfway there. There was no ending but then I went to the SHE conference at First Church and Sis. Claudette Walker shared some wisdom with us that just brings us home today.
Sis. Walker is older and has to take medication to keep herself alive. She takes it at 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, 9, and 11. That’s seven times a day. She said that in prayer she said, “God you can just heal me, you can.” But God had a different approach to the situation. He told her, you can sing to me at those times when you’re taking medicine. And like a true woman of God she said, ok. Choosing to use her trials to glorify God.
So, with that said, I want to share my a testimony with you.
I suffered from depression at a young age and like any normal person it creeps back in from time to time. I had stomach ulcers and severe acid reflux as a kid. I currently have some kind of carpal tunnel like pain in my elbow and wrist that the doctors can’t figure out. I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, my body is attacking my thyroid like it would a foreign object. I have Gastroparesis, my stomach is partially paralyzed making it difficult to eat without getting sick. When I asked, God did not heal me.
That doesn’t sound like a testimony does it? Here it comes. I’m still here. I can sit and wallow in my struggles, which I have done, or I can pick myself up, get into prayer, study the word of God, get myself to church, serve God like nothing is missing and pray that He uses me for His glory.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
I don’t want to only serve God when everything is perfect. I want to serve Him through my trials, I want to lack nothing. Steadfastness means, “the quality of being resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering.” I don’t want to waver. I don’t want to waver when I’m sick, when I’m sad, when life caves in on me, when I can’t pick my head up on my own. I want to be steadfast!
Thank you God for sending me trials because they make me stronger! Thank you God for testing my faith because now I can put all my faith in you!
Change your perspective!
I’m not saying all this to pat myself on the back. I want you to understand that God is Lord of all when you’re going to through the fire. I don’t remember who it was but someone said, “I’m not in a valley, I’m just changing mountains.” Let’s change our perspective and praise God through our trials. Praise God when we’re changing mountains and not allow this flesh to keep us from our promised land.
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I wrote this a few weeks ago from a place of complete surrender. I had decided that no matter what I was facing, I would face it with God. I was not going to allow any trial to be the dominate thing in my life. Well, a few days after writing that first testimony, I could eat again. I stopped feeling sick, I could eat more than steamed vegetables! Let me tell you...guys, food is so good! You have no idea!
Get this, God is not refusing to heal you, He doesn’t want you to suffer. He wants to know that you’re not just in it for the miracle. He wants you in sickness and in health. He wants to know that it's more than a miracle. Whether I am healed or not, I will serve you. Whether I have money or not, I will serve you. Whether I have the life I want or not, I will serve you. I will serve you because you are the author and perfecter of my faith. I will serve you because you deserve it.
No, God may not remove all my problems but I don’t want peace in perfection, I want peace that passes understanding and to have that peace that passes all understanding, I cannot understand.
Change your perspective and brace yourself for the unexpected.
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