Knowing God is more necessary

Just a short note to all who read or subscribe to throwing pebbles into the pond. I will be taking a bit of a hiatus from the daily blogging on the scripture I’m reading as I read through the Bible. For those who subscribe you will see updates whenever I jump back in. I am realizing that I need to KNOW God more and to see His power active in my life more than I need to write about knowing Him. So, onward and upward. Thanks for reading, Jan

The Philistines Are Upon You – 1 Pet 5: Judges 16

9/27/11  “Many would be scantily clad if clothed in humility.”   Author Unknown   .

1 Pet 5:6-10Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Humbling ourselves involves casting off anxiety and accepting God’s care. I think that translates to letting God control my life instead of keeping my hands tightly on the reins of how tomorrow will go for me. Humbling also involves being of “sober spirit” and being an alert person. So I can’t go off half-cocked or hilariously ignoring the realities of my life in Christ and ignoring the need to be His child. I can’t leave off paying attention to the spiritual battle around me if I want to remain a humble servant of the living God. Satan is always on alert to catch us in small areas of falseness. He will exploit every weakness and push against us at every opportunity. If he can frighten us, he will. If temptation to certain sins works, that will be his strategy against us. If you allow sin, anxiety, pride or a desire for control to gain more traction in your life than God and His Word, then Satan will be quite happy to take advantage of any or all of those mistakes.

God has a strategy as well to bring us into victory. Resist the voice of the enemy. Grow firm in faith, build on it, expand the tent pegs of your faith and pursue faith in growing measure. Don’t allow suffering, temptation, failure or accusations to take you out of the battle. No matter how hard it is to fight or how much suffering it takes to bring you through to the place of standing rightly with God, don’t stop speaking and thinking victory. By His grace He has called you. You are His now and He will take on the responsibility to perfect you, to confirm you, to strengthen and establish you in His power and mercy. As you grow you will be expected to share all He has provided to you. Don’t shirk the grace. Don’t throw it off and expect someone else to do the work of sharing His love with those you know. He put you in that neighborhood, workplace or classroom so that you would be the witness of His love and grace. Don’t allow any attack from Satan in your own thoughts or through the words and actions of others to stop you from taking up all His grace and running to Him. There are many who will follow and run alongside you but they are waiting for you to begin, to lead.

Read 1 Peter 5 click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20pet%205&version=NASB

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Judges 16:19-23 She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off. Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

“But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.” Those are probably some of the saddest words recorded in the Bible in reference to a man God intended to be a spiritual leader for His people. Samson never lived up to the expectations of wisdom and leadership God intended for he allowed his lusts to rule his life rather than God. It would be so easy to point the finger and say he should have known better and hold Samson to a higher standard than the rest of us; we often do that to church leaders today as well. It’s easy because we would rather hold someone else to that standard and deflect the eye of the Holy Spirit from our own sin and failure to live by the power of God. Samson had a lot to pay for and he suffered greatly for his sins, but right to the end he was still loved by God.

I have been irritated by God using men I thought were charlatans or users to bring healing to the sick or preach salvation to the lost. I’ve questioned why He uses men whose lives are a shambles, at least as I saw it. I may not be satisfied with the answers but apparently God calls men and women to serve Him as His voice or His hands of mercy and because He loves those who are being ministered to, He allows His power to work through the minister. Never think that the minister who fails to live righteously will escape the judgment of God, they don’t. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the ministry to the lost or the hurting or sick is being empowered for the sake of the man – God provides His power for the sake of those who RECEIVE, not for the sake of the one ministering to others. Each of us must die to self and live in the power of God in order to fulfill our destiny. Any of us can fail to fulfill that destiny by allowing our lusts, envyings, selfish habits or self-absorbed attitudes to overtake our love for God. Let us then take care to keep God first and to take captive every thought that raises itself up against the name and power of God. Keep Him first and you will save yourself and those who need to see His power moving will be blessed instead of harmed by your ministry.

Read Judges 16 click on http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+16&version=NIV