And He will Provide.

It is true... God will provide.

I recently found out the more I came to God, not to complain about how my life was going, but instead coming with the mentality of trusting and knowing that God will provide, is when He began to provide the most. For a time, I was laying all my cares on God, over and over. Now don't get me wrong, we are supposed to lay our cares on him, but when it became more important than just coming to God to find him, a problem arose. Living in fear is a sin. Living with worry is a sin. And whether you realize it or not, a continual complaining session with God is living with worry. Therefore you would be living in sin, and that was me; and I didn't even know it. As I began to change my attitude towards how I spent my time with God I found myself having much deeper and satisfying times with Him, and ultimately that He will provide. Making your heart right, one of trust, one that cares about finding Him rather than answers, is the most important part. Remember always that God will provide, He is your Father. He longs to fix your problems. Trust him, really trust him. And He will provide.

Impact of Impurity

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." 1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)

Paul clearly states that that sexual sin is different from all other sins in the fact that sexual sin is against your own body. Other sin is done on "outside" of the body. But here is the kicker that many of you maybe not have ever thought about:

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

So now here is the connection... when a man and women get married they become ONE FLESH, ONE BODY. So when sexual sin is committed it is not only against you, but against your spouse. That is why it is so important to make habits of purity even before getting married because living with those habits will effect both you and your wife's body. Even as a single man or women, undealt with sexual sin, when married, will effect your knew spouse as well because they will be one flesh with you. So never fool yourself into thinking that sexual sins won't hurt anyone else, they will. Especially if you get stuck in the habit and addiction that comes with it when you are single. Those habits will carry over, it won't get easier when you have your wife or husband. If you plan on getting married one day, take a stand now and deal with the hardships of sexual sin BEFORE the big day. 

Where are You Leaning?

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. " Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

We have all heard Proverbs 3:5-6 at some point. But I want to hopefully shed some new light on this passage. I want to focus on the word understanding. What is understanding? How does the man who wrote Proverbs define it? Well later on in Proverbs Solomon states :

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

The knowledge of the holy is understanding. That seems not to make sense at all. What is "the holy". I did a word study into the Hebrew language on the word holy used here. It seems to be a reference to the quote "Be holy as I am holy" from earlier in the Bible. It as if Solomon is saying that understanding is the knowledge of what God wants. God would say that quote after giving out the list of laws as sort of a closing remark, saying "this is what I want you to do." So the connection I make is this, understanding is the knowledge of what God wants us to do.

When Solomon says don't lean on your own understanding, he is just saying don't tell God what you think He wants for you, let HIM TELL YOU WHAT HE WANTS for you. After all "if you want God to laugh, just tell Him your plans." When you are actively living the first statement Solomon makes, trust in God, than it won't be hard at all to let Him tell you what His plans are.

When you put God first in all things; you acknowledge His power and presence and He will direct your paths.

You still need to strive for understanding as Solomon describes it, but also realize you are limited and God is not. Trust Him over what you think you know.

Praise Him

In all things we must learn to praise God.
In the good and bad He still deserves all our adoration. When life is looking grim, praise him. When life is perfect, praise him. We are firm in our faith that God is always on our side. I read in Proverbs today that God will not let the righteous get famished. Because we have hope in our saviour we have no reason not to still praise him. This is just a little encouragement, that yes, is easier said than done. But purposing yourself to praise our Holy God in the midst of anything is something we all need to do.

Praise be to our God, for He is good! (Always)

Just a Monkey Clanging a Can.

We have all heard it said, "Jesus did everything in love." And obviously this statement is quite true. At all times, in everything, He operated in love. And this should reign true for us also. No matter what we do, even good actions, if not done out of love they MEAN NOTHING, your just a monkey clanging a can. Making all this noise for no purpose. Even when Jesus was yelling and turning over tables His heart was overflowing in Love. In Philippians it talks about how love grows in knowledge and understanding. Love operates in discernment and understanding.

Love knows when to speak.

Love knows when not to say anything.

Love knows when to discipline.

Love knows when to have grace.

Love knows when to rebuke.

Love knows when to encourage.

Love knows when to listen.

Love knows when to instruct.

Love knows when to move.

Love knows when to sit still.

Love knows when to yell.

Love knows when to whisper.

Love knows how to empathize.

Love knows how to speak the hard truths.

Without love we are nothing. We can't help people if love doesn't guide our choices. I pray that today you go on a search for love and learn how to love at all times. In everything, even when you are at your wits end, you need to operate in love.