Daily – Page 5

The Human Contribution To God’s Deliverance

September 10, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

One of the best and most important steps that we can take in our Christian walk is coming to the place where we understand and agree with God’s viewpoint. I say this in a general sense because it is a process that must be repeated over and over as our faith grows through knowledge and experience. In other words, this understanding and agreement is not a one time occurrence but should happen many, many times throughout our lives as God reveals Himself more fully to us.

Learning to be a Christ-follower is a lifelong journey. Wisdom and revelation are given to us as we continually seek after the heart of God through prayer, Bible study, private and corporate worship and time spent with other believers. God made each of us unique. The way that we learn and grow is also unique and I believe that the Holy Spirit is constantly working and ministering to us to help us receive exactly what we need to progress in whatever stage of life we are in at the time.

In Proverbs 21:31 we find a truth that we can apply, if we are willing.

The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord. Proverbs 21:31 (NKJV)

Thus far we have talked about growth, development and the progress that we are hopefully making as children of God. All of this can loosely be thought of as preparation. Preparation for what? Preparation for whatever comes next in life and ultimately in eternity. Proverbs 21:31 tells me that preparation is an expectation and not an option. As a complete thought, this verse shows us that our preparation does not in and of itself grant us victory or deliverance, only God can do that. But the preparation must occur.

In every challenge that we face in life or are likely to face in the future, we can apply Proverbs 21:31. Prepare. Make sound, Bible-based plans and put in the work that is required as a faithful laborer. God uses the work of human hands to carry out His will and any careful study of the scriptures will reveal how God used ordinary people to do His work and to carry His message of salvation to the world.

God’s expectation has not changed and He is still seeking those who are willing to be used. God’s plan for every problem that faces mankind involves the work of His saints, up to and including the salvation of many souls. To use an example, it is a good thing to pray for world hunger and for starving children but real progress is made when we open up our wallets and donate food to our local food pantry and worldwide relief organizations. No problem is insurmountable to God but it is an important revelation when we discover that God intends to use us as part of the solution and to exclude ourselves from the process is to completely miss how God intends to bring about His kingdom on Earth.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: faith and works, God's plan, Proverbs 21:31

Always Start Here

September 3, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

It’s good to go back and review the basics sometimes. No matter how long we have been doing something or how much of an expert we might be it is to our benefit to occasionally go back to the beginning of our training and the core of our knowledge.

We need to be reminded of where our foundation lies and what is most important because the world we live in seems to be trying to move faster and further away from all that is good and right. There are many ideas and many opinions but only one real foundation for truth.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction Proverbs 1:7 (NKJV)

Why is the fear of the Lord the beginning of knowledge? And even before that, what does it really mean to fear God?

The fear of the Lord that the Bible talks about is made up of two things and can be thought of like this: acknowledgement and agreement. In other words, we acknowledge God as creator and as sovereign and we agree with his words and ways. It’s not enough to simply know of God or to stop at an intellectual level where we agree that God exists (even Lucifer and the fallen angels know of God and testify to his existence by their acts against him) but there must also be a wholehearted agreement between us and him that we want to follow him and know him better and better.

Once we’ve made that personal commitment then we are at the place where we are ready to begin to receive all that God has for us. We have arrived at the beginning and we have laid the foundation for being perfect and complete in Jesus Christ, God’s only son. We can move on from this point –

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)

We make the commitment, God does the work in us (and through us) as long as we remain in agreement and acknowledgement with him. Because our human nature is rebellious this is a continual process and we often find ourselves in need of renewal and in need of going back to the basics of what we believe and why we believe.

There has only ever been one perfect person and that was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. For everyone else, no matter how long we have been a Christian or how far we have walked with the Lord we can never get away from the foundation of the fear of the Lord and the hope of his good work in us. Let us all take seriously our commitment to his words and his ways and to knowing him better all the days of our lives.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: fear of the Lord, knowledge, Philippians 1:6, Proverbs 1:7, wisdom

Prayer Workers Wanted: Apply Within Your Heart

August 20, 2018 by Matthew Gaither 4 Comments

Have you ever read something that immediately grabbed your attention and made you sit up and take notice? Perhaps it made you begin to think and to question the way in which you were doing something or going about your life. Maybe it was so profound that it stuck with you and caused you to want to do better and to be better.

Such a thing happened to me recently. I was reading a monthly publication and an article about prayer when I came across the following paragraph.

Craig Warner, Executive Director for the Gideon’s International writes:

Intentional and genuine prayer is work. Praying is much more than a physical exercise of bowing our heads, clasping our hands together, and going to our knees. The goal of prayer is God Himself – not joy, peace or blessing. How do we reach that goal? Practice. In his book, The Path of Prayer, Samuel Chadwick writes, “Though a man shall have all knowledge about prayer, and though he understands all mysteries about prayer, unless he prays he will never learn to pray”.

I can’t stop thinking about it and even better, I can’t stop praying about it. I want to know God better. I want all of Him, or as least as much as I can handle in this earthly body. The principle path to knowing God better is prayer so that means I need to get a lot better at prayer and talking to Him!

I think for most of us the primary obstacle to a better prayer life is the time and effort that we are willing to invest in it. In other words, we aren’t doing the work required, we aren’t making prayer a priority and therefore our relationship with our Heavenly Father isn’t as strong as it could be. I know this to be true in my case and I suspect it may be true in the lives of other Christians as well.

It’s been said that prayer is our power source and that is almost right. Prayer is not the power source, God is the power source and prayer is the method by which we stay filled with the Spirit and in harmony with the power source. The more we pray the more we are able to attune our hearts to the master and creator of the universe who is also our savior and our friend. The miracle in all of this is that he desires our companionship and love more than we desire His. He seeks us, draws us, teaches us and is always working on our behalf and unless we stay in contact with Him through prayer we are apt to miss most of what He is doing.

God is so good and the depth of his love and character is infinite. Although we have an eternity to get to know him the sooner we start and the more emphasis we place on prayer the better and sweeter our lives will be. And through our connection to God others around us will be blessed and God’s kingdom will grow.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: God, prayer, quiet time

Inspiration For Leaders

August 6, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

To be a child of God is to be a follower. We are to follow our Lord’s commands and to seek him with our whole mind and whole heart. But to be a child of God is also to be a leader. We are charged to lead the way in pointing others to Jesus Christ and to encourage, exhort and enable those around us to be committed followers as well.

Every child of God has been gifted with skills and talents that are given so that we might serve the Lord and function perfectly in the building of his church. Not that we ourselves are perfect but only that we are willing to give of ourselves, our time and our talents and let the Lord use us as he may. In that sense we are servant leaders and we have been charged with a responsibility to take seriously our call and our work for God’s kingdom.

In 1 Chronicles chapter 28, King David was in the process of preparing his son Solomon to become the next king of Israel and to be the man to build God’s temple. His words were given to inspire Solomon as a leader and in the task to which he had been given and they are just as valuable and inspirational for us today as they were when they were given.

⁹“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. ¹⁰Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act.” 1 Chronicles 28:9-19 (NASB)

Before any undertaking for the Lord we must be sure that we are in touch with God and that we are seeking for Him in everything that we do. The NASB translation phrases it as a “whole heart and a willing mind” and states that if we seek Him “He will let you find Him” meaning God wants us our attention and our focus and rewards it with his presence.

²⁰Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. 1 Chronicles 28:20 (NASB)

David’s charge in both verse 10 and in verse 20 was to be “strong and courageous” and in verse 20 “and act”. In other words, Solomon (and we) are to be strong and take courage in God and then use that to fuel our actions and our will. Why? Because God is with us and will not forsake us and will see to it that our work and service for the Lord is finished.

David’s words to Solomon in this passage echo down through the ages and are given for the benefit of all servant leaders. What will be our response to God’s call and to the duties and responsibilities that he has entrusted to us?

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: 1 Chronicles 28, courage, do not fear, leadership, servant

When God’s Word Is Real To Us

July 30, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

One of the most amazing things about God’s Word is that we can read it repeatedly throughout our whole lives and all at once a passage of scripture will become real to us in a way that it never has before. It’s the same book and the same words but now, because God’s Word is living and powerful, it is able to penetrate right to the core of our being and imprint itself on us in a way that moves and changes us. And the more time we spend in God’s Word and the more we focus on studying it the more God reveals himself to us in it.

From my own experience, when this happens it does several things. First, it gets me excited. It produces joy and encouragement and a lot of positive energy. It makes me want to take what I have just internalized and ponder over how good and amazing it is and out of that I offer praise to the Lord. And this is not a hard praise that I have to wrestle out against the will of my flesh but a natural, free-flowing praise based on God’s revelation and goodness to me.

Secondly, I want to share it with someone. I want to encourage others with the good news of God’s Word and tell what I have learned and experienced. I want God’s Word to become real to someone else the same way that it became real to me because I know that if it does, they will want to do the same and so it goes and the process can be repeated for the benefit of many.

But the opposite is also true. When we aren’t studying God’s Word and we aren’t making it a priority then we are missing opportunities for growth and for blessing others. Our neglect not only causes us to miss out on chances for God’s Word to become real it also removes that impetus to share and encourage someone else. In that sense our focus, or lack of, can either start a very positive chain reaction of encouragement and excitement or can completely block what God is trying to do in us and through us. It’s that serious.

To conclude, I want to share a few verses of scripture that God caused to be very real to me this week. They are familiar but so powerful and I pray that they would become as real and as amazing to you as they are to me.

For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, ¹⁰and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. ¹¹You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah. ¹²Having been buried with Him in baptism, you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. ¹⁴He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him. Colossians 2:9-15 (HCSB)

In salvation, God takes our entire sin debt, with all of its obligations and penalty of death, and nails it to the cross of Christ. There it is covered with the blood of Jesus and it is erased forever! What does that mean to you? Every day I learn more about what it means to me and I look forward to the completion of that knowledge one day when I meet my Savior.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: bible study, Colossians 2:9-15, encouragement, God's Word

Let Us Love

July 23, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

Divisions in the church and among God’s people are incredibly damaging and demoralizing. They completely destroy our focus on God and His presence and allow Satan to separate us from each other and harm our testimony in the process. We cannot be effective as ministers of the Gospel while we fight with our Christian brothers and sisters.

Mark 12:30-31 says “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. ’This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” It seems to me that if Jesus thought it important enough to call out these 2 commandments as the “greatest” then we would do well to listen.

Our interactions with each other should start and end with love. While misunderstandings and mistakes are a part of the human experience, as long as showing and giving and experiencing God’s love are first and foremost in our hearts and minds then forgiveness and healing will be a natural result. We must realize that we are all imperfect creatures who have been adopted into the family of God and no one is any more or less worthy of God’s grace. In this we are all the same. We have all come under the blood of Jesus and are the recipients of God’s great love and therefore have a responsibility to be ambassador’s to those who have not heard and have not seen.

That’s why it’s so harmful to our mission and our ministry when we fight and bicker among ourselves. Instead of love and unity the world looks at the family of God and often sees a family that is just as troublesome and divided as their own. Brothers and sisters, we must set aside our differences and come together. We must recognize that our God and our King is bigger and far more important than any issue we might have and as long as we seek to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength then we won’t have any room left for division.

I truly believe that as people grow closer to God they grow closer together. Unity and true brotherhood are a natural occurrence when people are focused on adoration, worship and submission to the Savior. When we fight and get our feelings hurt and drift away from one another it’s because we’ve stopped looking at Jesus and have lost our focus. Thankfully, it’s not too late to turn our eyes back on Him and restore the fellowship that has been broken.

I won’t tell you that this is an easy or natural thing. In fact it runs completely counter to human nature. It requires diligence and discipline and getting over ourselves and our pride. Only by living and walking in the Spirit is such a thing possible. My prayer today is that Christian brothers and sisters everywhere would set “self” aside and learn to live and walk in love. Only then can we truly come together.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: Love

Hope And Blessings In The Darkness

July 16, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

We all find ourselves in dark places from time to time. Places where answers are hard to find and the future seems uncertain. In those times our world seems to shake around us and the foundations we have laid for ourselves no longer seem capable or strong enough to last. What we thought we knew no longer applies and we find ourselves perplexed and dismayed.

Everyone searches for hope in the darkness but few seem to find it. Why is that? Could it be that we often look in the wrong place for hope? Could it be that we are ignorant of the source of true hope?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

As a child of God, our hope should be in God and God alone. He is the only one with the power and the authority to speak calm into our turmoil and light into our darkness. But even in this there is a proper time and a proper order that God alone knows.

When we find ourselves in a place of need, desperately searching for an answer, our first response should be to cry out to God. But what if God does not answer right away? What if God does not answer in the way that we think He should?

Then we are blessed to be able to exercise our faith. Faith is the assurance of that which we hope for and it is our conviction that even though we can’t see our way out we know that God can! With just a word God created the world and everything in it. When God speaks, all creation must take heed. God’s word still has the power to completely change our lives and to perform miracles in places without hope.

God’s will is to take us home to be with Him in perfect fellowship for all eternity. But we often forget that only He knows the path that will lead us home. Sometimes the darkness is allowed to persist and the uncertainty lingers. And the more uncomfortable our situation the faster we want out and the more we struggle against it.

Sometimes we must be led through the darkness in order to increase our faith and so that we may be a guide for others who are following behind us. Our dark periods are not just for us alone and have far reaching spiritual ramifications that we will never fully understand until we see Jesus face to face.

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NASB)

We must learn to use our eyes of faith and see beyond that which is temporary to that which is eternal. Whatever we are going through now and whatever situation we find ourselves in on this earth will change. Good or bad, it will pass away and it will not persist. In the light of eternity, it is momentary. But even these moments, as confusing and uncertain as they often seen, can be used by the Lord God of all to produce in us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond all comparison.

Trust in God, even in the darkness. Don’t forget your hope and remember to look forward to the day when all is revealed and your reward is received. It will be worth it all.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: faith, hope, uncertainty

Biblical Instruction For A Good Night’s Sleep

July 9, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

The Bible is an amazing document. It contains the words of God and was authored under His divine instruction and inspiration. For a Christ-follower it is the guide and the road-map for life.

The Bible contains everything that we, as believers, need to succeed and to grow in our relationship with God. It also contains vast amounts of wisdom and knowledge for daily living. Here’s an example that you might have forgotten or overlooked; it is the Lord’s instruction on how to have a great night’s sleep.

²¹My son, let them not vanish from your sight;
Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
²²So they will be life to your soul
And adornment to your neck.
²³Then you will walk in your way securely
And your foot will not stumble.
²⁴When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
²⁵Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
²⁶For the Lord will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught. (Proverbs 3: 21 – 26) NASB

Notice verse 24, which is in bold type. When you lie down you will not be afraid and your sleep will be sweet. What a great promise!

Now I don’t know about you but my sleep isn’t always sweet! There have certainly been times when I have been anxious about something and it has kept me awake and I have not gotten a good night’s rest. You would think that to the God of the universe and the creator of all that our sleep wouldn’t be high on His list of problems to address. Yet here is His instruction in the book of Proverbs, given to us all so that we might attain proper physical rest.

God loves us so much that he cares to address common, ordinary human problems right in His Word. And if you look at this verse in the context of verses 21 through 26 you will see very quickly why this is. Proverbs is a book about wisdom, knowledge, instruction, understanding and diligence. When we search for God’s wisdom and instruction and seek to understand Him and His ways and apply these things with diligence to our lives then the result will be security, stability, confidence in the future and the best night’s sleep that you could ever have. In other words, God cares to address how we are sleeping because when we aren’t sleeping well it is usually a sign of some other larger problem.

Whether it is a problem of our own making or one that is brought on by outside circumstances matters not. When we choose to focus on the problem and our lack of resources to solve the problem then the result is always anxiety, restlessness, anxiousness and often times fear and a lack of good sleep. However, if we know who holds all of the resources and we have been diligent in following God’s Word and His instructions then we have nothing to fear and everything to gain.

Furthermore, even when we haven’t been diligent and we have made a complete mess of things we have a God who is faithful and just to forgive if we will call on His name and ask for forgiveness. When we repent of our sin and error God can take the mess that we have made and still work it out to the ultimate good, if we will let Him. This is something that only God can do!

Ultimately, even though God loves us so much and has given everything He had to save us and make us His own children He still leaves the relationship details up to us. He has provided every instruction and bit of wisdom that we could ever need in the Bible but it is up to us to seek it out. Like Proverbs 3:22 says “let them be life to your soul and as adornment for your neck”. We need to be so serious and put so much effort into seeking God’s instruction for our life that His Words are lodged in the very center of our being (our souls) and worn on our person in the same way that someone might display a beautiful jewel or precious stone.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: instruction, Proverbs, wisdom

Where We Belong

June 25, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

All of us, I believe, have certain places that are special and memorable to us. It might be a favorite vacation spot or restaurant or even the house we grew up in but, wherever it is, it is a place with meaning and significance.

And among places with meaning and significance, nowhere is more important or holds such power as our position in Christ Jesus. For the time being it is not a physical location that we can see our touch with our senses but it is a held position nonetheless and it is vitally important that we understand it and take advantage of it.

God would not have us be ignorant of who we are and what we were created to be. It is the enemies’ aim to keep us in the dark about our identities in Christ and about the power and privilege that he has bestowed upon us. Consider Ephesians 2: 1-10.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time,gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10) NIV

Firstly we must acknowledge that we have been made spiritually alive if we have been born again and accepted God’s free gift of salvation through his son Jesus. And not only have we been made alive and been granted pardon from all sin, we have also been given a seat with God’s precious son Jesus who is even now preparing a place for us in Heaven. John Gill’s exposition has this to say about verse 6:

“Christ is entered into heaven as the forerunner, to take possession of it for his people, in their name; and to prepare mansions of glory for them, and in these they sit; which imports honour, pleasure, rest from labour and weariness, and safety and security: and what adds to the happiness of this is, that it is together with all the saints, and with Christ himself; and in these they are made to sit already; which is so said, because of the certainty of it, for the same glory Christ has, they shall have; and because of their right to such a blessing; and chiefly because Christ their head is set down therein, who sustains their persons, bears their names on his heart, and represents them.”

What a promise and what a thought! Christ himself is waiting for us, preparing for us and has claimed his position as head of all things! And while he waits, God the Father has made us joint heirs together with Jesus (the implications of this still stagger me) to partake in the same blessings and glory that has been conferred on his precious son.

This is our position in the heavenly kingdoms and it is fixed with certainty. And because we are on the journey to that glorious place we must be about doing God’s work while we journey through this life. Verse 10 makes it clear that God himself has prepared good works for us to find and discover in advance and as we set about that blessed work we know for sure that we are storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven and that our creator eagerly waits for our homecoming day. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is where we belong.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: blessings, Ephesians 2, good works, position, salvation

And Then I Awoke

June 18, 2018 by Matthew Gaither Leave a Comment

I am continually amazed by how God works and how he chooses to reveal himself to us. There have been many times in my life where I was in the middle of a problem and God chose to somehow, some way, step in and completely alleviate the situation. At times, I know he has caused things to happen and that he dealt directly with my circumstances in order to make a way for me where there was no way before. But, more often, he chose to reveal himself to me and in so doing, he changed me in the midst of my circumstances.

God’s problem solving is always miraculous to me, whether it is changing circumstances or changing the person that I am in order that I might be more like Jesus. Both types of deliverance are worthy of remembrance and praise and one particular instance comes to mind that still brings me joy every time I think of it.

Life and work were especially busy at that time (when are they not?) and I was also recuperating from a cough and cold so I was not at my best. I don’t know best how to describe what I was thinking and feeling except to say that I was just down. I was in a bit of a funk and even though I acknowledged it I couldn’t really figure out why.

I couldn’t put my finger on any specific moment where I had gone wrong and all I could do was to continually take “me” to the Lord and just pour out my heart to him. I asked God to examine me and show me if I had sinned or if I was just feeling down mentally and spiritually because I was physically tired and trying to get over an ailment. All I could really say for sure was that something was not right and I knew that the best thing for me to do was just to trust God to work it out just as he had so many times before.

That night I dreamed. I can’t say I remember exactly what the contents of the dream were but it was enough to make an impression on me and to wake me from my sleep. And in those few moments between sleep and full wakefulness God revealed to me that I was disappointed in myself for a mistake I had made in the recent past and that I was mentally punishing myself for it even though he had already forgiven me. There was no audible voice but the impression and clarity of the thought was so strong that I had no doubt that it was heaven sent.

Right then and there I asked God to forgive me for holding on to something that he had already forgiven and, at his prompting, I let myself be at rest in him. It was the most wonderful, peaceful feeling and I woke up the next morning a new and different person from who I was the day before. My mental outlook and attitude were instantly refreshed and I knew that God had, once again and because he loves me, chosen to step in and rescue me.

Nothing outwardly was different and my circumstances did not change. But God’s touch through the teaching and correction of the Spirit made all of the difference to me and I thank God for the remembrance and that I am able to share it with others in this format. One of the best things we can do for each other as believers is to tell each other of how God has worked in our lives and of the victories that he has won. Let us, together, give God the glory he deserves and use those victories to encourage each other as we go.

Filed Under: Daily Tagged With: correction, forgiveness, remembrance, victory