And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:7-9

Jesus Is Enough

We live in a world where we are constantly told that we are enough. You see it all over social media. You hear you have within you everything you need to succeed in life.

However, the Christian mindset should be the complete opposite. You do not have within you everything you need to be successful at life. If you were enough, then Jesus died for nothing, and the cross is pointless. Jesus is the only one who is enough, and is the only one who could ever live up to what a successful life should look like.

Solomon's Mindset

It is through the life of Solomon that we see this mindset in action. When God comes to Solomon in a dream and asks what He can give him, Solomon comes with a humble mindset and asks for the following:

“You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” 1 Kings 3: 6-9

Look Upward

Rather than looking inward, like society wants us to, let us look upward. Because without Jesus we will never be enough.

“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

Sin can be a lot like mold.

By the time we see sin appear in our lives or in the lives of others, we can be sure its roots have already spread inward and multiplied. Actions are merely a reflection of what lives in the heart. Murder begins in our hearts and minds when we refuse to love our neighbour as ourselves. It may not be detectable in the early stages, but as the spores of sin grow and flourish, it will make itself known.

Sin thrives in a heart that is receptive to lies and easily deceived; it will feed off unforgiveness and selfishness, and with the right encouragement, will flourish into death.

“Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:14

This is why it is so important to root out the sin in our lives as soon as we are aware of its presence. Proverbs 28:13 tells us that, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Notice there are two calls to action: we must confess our sin and renounce them.

Hidden sins have a way of spreading and invading our life when left unattended. If the Holy Spirit is revealing to you an area in your life where you need to confess and repent, don't delay. Our God is gracious and compassionate. He longs to heal and forgive. But He will not invade your life without permission; He stands at the door and knocks. Will you invite Him in?

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Ephesians 1:7-8

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV

The Evidence of God's Grace

Much of the conversation this week in the Bible studies I’ve attended has revolved around God’s grace. In particular, I was asked how God has demonstrated grace in my life.

The enormity of the answer is almost too much to put to paper. The evidence of his grace is all around me, but what stands out the most to me, is his loving acceptance of this broken vessel.

At a time when I gave God every reason to cast me aside, instead he saved me. I denied him and he gave me eternal life. When I was angriest with God, he offered me peace and salvation. God’s grace amazes me. God’s love and salvation are a gift given to us; it is never something we do for God.

The marvelous thing about God’s grace is his willingness to extend it to us, broken as we are. Have you ever felt as if you had no value? You are so precious to God that he gave his Son to redeem you. Who does that? Only God; because washed in Christ’s blood, we are redeemed and justified and are heirs with him to the kingdom of heaven. God's grace is sufficient enough to cover all sinners.

Today, as you consider God’s Word, as you believe in Christ Jesus, your Savior, your risen Lord, rejoice that you are at peace with God, that you are indeed, a redeemed child of God, and that God's grace is sufficient for you.

Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. -Isaiah 62:4 NLT

Has life left you with labels that leave you empty? Hopeless? Without meaning? Unworthy?

Maybe it was life or the people in it that dealt the blows leading to those labels. Or maybe it was your own choices that gave you cause to place the labels upon yourself.

Maybe it was the betrayal of someone you trusted.
The loss of a job.
Or when you followed the world and its ways instead of God and His ways.

For each of us the story is different. The logistics all unique. But the shame that finds its way into the crevices of our soul is quite similar. It grows insidiously and leads us to behave in ways that do not bring out our best. Sometimes we hide from the world or other times we come out swinging aggressively to protect ourselves. Either way, it’s a survival strategy that doesn’t lead us to the fullness of God’s love and grace.

But there is a way to walk out of that shame. A way to claim the identity as a child of God and live in the fullness of His love and grace. I don’t just say that because it sounds good, either. I say that because it’s right there in the Word of God and because I’ve lived it. I’ve lived labels and shame and then I lived the redemption provided by God with His love and grace.

It's the reason for my hope.

And it can be yours, too. Join me as I share with you a powerful strategy toward trading that label of emptiness for one filled with hope, meaning, and purpose. Together we can learn to relish in the truth that God delights in us!

What Does Perseverance Mean

What does the word perseverance mean to you? According to one online dictionary site I looked at, perseverance means: “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” How many of us truly persevere when we encounter difficulties or delays in achieving success? How many of us persevere in prayer UNTIL we receive our answer? We pray and ask God for something, and if it doesn’t happen right away, we backpedal and say things like, “Well, God must not have wanted to give it to me.” Or, “If God wanted me to have it, He would have already given it to me.”

Wrong!

Sometimes, dare I say most times, when answers to our prayers aren’t forthcoming, God wants us to learn perseverance! It is a virtue God wants us to add to our lives in order to be effective and productive in our Christian life.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” 2 Peter 1:5-8

Perseverance in prayer is pivotal to progressing in our Christian walk. Do we really believe we are praying to a benevolent God who longs to answer the prayers of His children? Or are we simply breathing heartfelt longings to an empty sky?

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” Matthew 7:7 NIV

In the original Greek language, the verbs ask, seek and knock indicate ongoing, continuous action. He wants us to ask and to keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking.

Next time you find yourself getting discouraged in the process, keep moving! Perseverance pays off in the long run.

Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 2 Kings 5:2–3 (ESV)

A Brave Girl's Testimony

Have you ever wondered about the effectiveness of your Christian testimony? While digging into the book of Kings I discovered a nameless slave girl that made me really think about this. The Bible doesn’t name her, but it does speak of her situation. She is a slave, but not just any slave. She is the slave of a high-ranking general in the Syrian army.

Not only that she is not a Syrian, but a Hebrew. She was captured in a raid. Now I want you to think about that. This little girl was ripped from her homeland, and only God knows what she went through with a vicious army like the Syrians. Finally she ends up in the home of Naaman and belongs to his wife. She discovers that he has leprosy, and gives testimony that the prophet of God could help him.

What a brave girl. How much courage it must have taken to give that kind of witness to the very people who owned her.

Be the type of person that a lost person will listen to

Naaman was powerful, rich, had a good reputation, but was lost and without God in his life. He had something wrong with him nothing could cure. Why did Naaman listen to this girl? The reason he listened is because with all that she went through in her life she walked the walk.

Remember that your Christian testimony matters

Think of this little girl’s life. She was just giving a small testimony of the power of God through the prophet in Israel. She may not have even said but a sentence. She could have just kept the witness to herself, but she didn’t.

Remember during suffering, persecution, and difficulties is when your witness is most effect brothers and sisters.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 NIV

God Hears Children Too

While we were away, my daughter met some friends at the kids club. They became her ‘best friends’ within a matter of hours. Gotta love the friendliness of kids.

Before we departed from dinner the night before, we agreed to meet up the next morning - but with a very loose agreement with no specific time.

We are EARLY risers - even on vacation. We are typically out of our room by 7:30am - which means we are in the pool by 8:00am, which is well before any of the other guests.

After she had been waiting for about an hour, looking expectantly for her new best friends, I reminded her that not everyone wakes up as early as we do. That did not stop her from wanting them to come right away and asking how much longer they were going to take.

It was then that she surprised me. She asked me if she could pray for them to come. I told her yes. While she prayed, I prayed as well. I asked God to reveal Himself to her and show Himself real. She said ‘amen’ and we looked up. Within 30 seconds, we saw her friends walking towards us! They explained that they hadn’t even stopped for breakfast - they came straight in our direction looking for us.

Imagine my elation! God had shown Himself real - He not only had answered her prayer, but mine as well.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that you hear the prayers of children too. Father, help us to come to you as children, believing that whatever we ask for in your name, that you hear and answer.

We must admit that our society accepts white lies as an excuse, but as children of the Light, we must embrace the truth. A lie is a lie and sin is a sin. There is no big sin and no small sin. You need to know those good and right things are different. The world may say choose the good thing, but a good thing is not certainly the right thing, yet the right thing is always the right thing.

When you make the right decision, people may not like you and they won’t be happy about your decision. You might face doubts and start asking yourself, am I doing the right thing? Was that the right thing? People around you may not agree with you, because the right thing usually does not fit into what society says. But when you choose to do the right thing, you will feel the peace inside of you.

You may lose something or someone significant to you, but you will have a peace inside that no one can take away. Peace is God’s reward to us, for doing the right thing, because He is pleased by us.

We need to decide today that we will choose to do the right things - that we will strive to live in holiness. Remember, without holiness, no one will see the Lord, because God is a holy God.

Train your mind to do the right things, so when a harder situation comes and suggests you doing something bad, your mind will be more prone to think of a way out. Don’t be afraid: God will empower you to do the right thing.

Prayer

God, You know my limitations and shortcomings. You know the depth of my heart yet You love and chose me. I thank You for Your unlimited and unending love in my life. Help me live according to Your righteousness and teach me to love Your commandments. Strengthen my feet to walk in Your way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. Proverbs 1:24 NLT

I can remember being 11 or 12 years old and spending the night at my great grandmother's home. She'd let me stay up as late as I wanted watching TV.

The only thing is, while the programs had my full and complete focus, at that time the TV stopped showing programs after midnight or 1am.

Today that's hard for many people under 30 to even imagine. How could you turn a TV on and nothing but static displayed on the screen even when you'd paid the bill on time?

A benefit though was one less distraction to compete with our attention.

There is so much vying for our focus today; bills, spouses, kids, advertisers, fear, work, school, social media and so on.

What we pay attention to contributes to our benefit or detriment, so there should be ongoing scrutiny of anything or anyone in our lives. The frequency, in what combination and where, all require re-examination at times, as we strive to focus on God.

Christ requires the attention of believers, but He won't force it. It must be an intentional decision and action.

If you look back through the Bible, Jesus paid attention to the poor, the unsaved, sick, and consistently inserted Himself in ways that correlated with Kingdom building.

His attention was on Heaven and that allowed the appropriate things to consume Him while also removing things not important to the mission.

Whatever your current Kingdom business entails, the battle for your focus is ongoing. I pray that you recognize what isn't worth your divine focus and continue to press in and focus on God.

“Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.” Habakkuk 3:17-19 NKJV

The Story of Habakkuk

Life isn’t shy when it comes to problems, puzzles, or confusion. Every day we are faced with a wide variety of decisions to make. What is one area in life in which you have been left frustrated and asking questions? For me it would be hard to think of just one area as almost everything confuses me to some extent—math, directions, IKEA instructions, or even men.

The entire book is actually a conversation between Habakkuk and God. This dialogue took place as Habakkuk was ministering at the end of the Assyrian Empire and the rise of the Babylonian Empire. His people were in danger, they were without many basic life necessities, and they were hurting.

What Can We Learn From Habakkuk

We can learn a lot about Habakkuk and his conversation with God. Take courage, Christian: Habakkuk did not end in the same place he began.

Although he was initially skeptical, complained, and questioned God—the book closes with him choosing joy in the God of his salvation.What are some practical truths we can take away from the book of Habakkuk?

Our circumstances do not determine our response. In fact, there are no circumstances that can keep you from rejoicing in the Lord. Instead, we must surrender our skepticism to the Lord and trust in Him. Joy is found in the God of our salvation – do you know Him?