Discussion: Be Encouraged
August 7, 2020
As I have listened to some of my Christian brothers and sisters over the recent weeks, they are conveying the sense of pressures closing in on them. My assignment this week is to remind us of who we are and whose we are. The only means I know to accomplish this is to start at the beginning.
God…
God is…
God is... Not controlled by time in this earthly sphere, so it does not govern God who is outside of time.
Earth… Time controls earth... A time realm, everything on Earth.
Man...The species that occupies Earth within a time world.
Summary...God is Sovereign. He is the beginning and the end. He never sleeps nor slumbers. God is outside of time, while man is inside of time. God is also the one who sets time in motion. In his infinite wisdom, he knew how time would influence our lives. He knew that it would set our world up with a structure, intertwined with dates, schedules, deadlines, etc.
Situation: Because time affects our world, God puts guidelines in place to safeguard and provide for us as we moved within our world
…
Guidelines:
Man is to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is outside of time. We are told in scripture that man is not to be control by the sphere he lives in... we walk by faith, not by sight. (II Corinthians 5:7)
For man, this can become complex and almost impossible because everything related to us is time oriented. Examples, mortgage/rent, car note, utilities etc. have time (an expected date) added.
2. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
We (dominated by time) are urging a God (who is not commanded by time) to do something we are ruled by, that he set in place and calling for us to trust that he will answer it.
Ask anything in my name and I will do it. (John 14:14) God is faithful to his message. Yet occasionally we ask, and we don’t see the evidence of a response. Many ask, pray and fast, along with calling the prayer warriors to intervene on their behalf. Still we see no visible signs. Please take note, I said, a visible sign.
In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plan to give you hope and a future.” God says he has plans for us and nothing in his plan is to harm us. Far too many people are not on the path God planned for us. While others are precisely on the path he chose. God knows exactly where we are right now and the conditions that are circling us. So what does it mean when it appears God is not responding?
First, let me say God doesn’t need me to take up for him and I am not seeking to… he is Sovereign (do whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to, how he wants to, God is God).
What is my position after I asked, “What do I do?” Did I leave it in God’s control? Is it absolutely not my will, but let God will be done! Are my eyes and thoughts on what I have prayed for God to move on my behalf? Am I proceeding in life with an uplifted heart? Do I move around my day (s) in peace (or pieces) that all will work out, especially when the deadline has passed? What kind of conversation do I have with myself and others on the matter (s)? God has already told me what he will do (plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plan to give you hope and a future).
What messages are operating in my vocabulary? Hustling, struggling to survive, I’m trying to take it one day at a time becomes a part of my conversation. Do we reach out to other as our instruments of bringing us out of this situation? Do we move around asking where God is? I can answer most of these from personal experience (knowledge) stretching out over the years in my life. At the same time experiencing depression, anxiety and panic attacks.
It wasn’t until I started ending my prayers with “Not my will, let thou will be done in my life”. “Are there situations that I literally have to push the words out?” YES! Simultaneously, God’s assurance comes up within me “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Lastly, periodically a problem can be a message from God that “we need to talk.” God loves us and with the rapid life we lead, God may only hear from us just before we say our standard prayer before getting into bed. Or that our eyes have been on the provision, not the Provider. No matter what the provision is, it is not our source. Where do we go from here, confidently remembering who we are and whose we are!
Almost daily over the past months I am getting news that pulls at my heartstrings. We are encountering something that many of us have not imagined in our lifetime we would ever experience. Many are looking to God like never before and I want to inspire you to remember… he has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plan to give you hope and a future.
Prayer by Dorothy A. Hilliard (my Cousin)
A Time to Rejoice…
Father God, I thank you for another day. Another day we can rejoice in and be glad. Another day to show forth your glory! We have another day to advance the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for you to give us a glimpse of what that may look like. For it’s our desire to do your will, not ours. Although things look chaotic to the natural eyes, we know you sit high and look low. Your respective differs from ours, so much so we don’t know what or who to believe. Or even what to pray for, but we know what is going on didn’t catch you by surprise or without a remedy.
So Father, we put our trust in you. We tune our ears to hear what the spirit has to say. We rest in you. We are grateful that amid what appears to be chaos; we have peace in God. We do not have to fear the terror by night, nor the arrows that flies by day. We dwell in the secret place of the most high. Therefore, we can say he is our refuge, we will not fear. We realize we are in the master’s hand and the master has a plan. So we take time out to still ourselves. So you can show us the path you have for us to travel. We will be still so we can know the voice of God, and we will not obey the voice of another.
Father, we see there is a turning. We realize that when things are turning around, it can sometimes stir things until it seems they are getting worse, rather than better. But we stand on your rhema (spoken) word today. It encourages us, not to be down trotted. We lift our hearts, so we can witness firsthand as the King of Glory steps in. We realize this is a pivot time in history and we are here to see it. We know it is the darkest before the dawn and we are awaiting the clearing of a new day.
Praying your kingdom comes and your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, so we vow to continue to pray. We vow to continue to mourn, to create a space for you to intervene in the earth. For we know that all you need is an opening and just one word from you will bring about change. For the king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord, so we pray today for the kings of the earth. Our leaders, those in authority they will be clay in the hands of God, so they will fulfil the will of God.
We pray for all of those who have lost love ones to the Pandemic and to violence in the streets. We pray for healing. We pray as Isaiah in the bible prayed. You give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that they might glorify him. We thank you that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. So we rejoice in you today. Amen
Thank you for joining me for Friday at Sundown. Remember… Just Breathe!
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