Thoroughly Blessed

"Seek the Kingdom of God, above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need."                                                                                                  Matthew 6:33   NLT

As we saw from our reading yesterday, seeking God first has great benefits. Solomon told us in Proverbs 3:5-6, 'Trust in the LORD with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.' (NLT)

These two verses are so important to our daily lives. By putting God first, 'above all else', and living a righteous life, it will bring us many benefits, as God gives us all that we need. I stress the word, 'need.' God knows what is best for us - what will bless us and what will bring us to ruin. He will only give us what will bless us. However, just like a loving parent, who wants to make his child happy, God will give us blessings. We may not ask Him for a particular thing, because it may fall into the 'want' category but He knows we would like it and that it would be such a blessing for us. Therefore, because of His love for us, on occasions, He may just add a blessing to our day.

I have lost count of the times that this has happened to us and no doubt you have too. You see, He loves us and watches over us throughout the day. As we ask Him for directions - should we go here, do this particular thing or make a particular decision about a most important issue, He will happily show us the way. In Psalm 32:8 (NLT) we read,'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.' Note that on all three of the readings that I have mentioned, that the emphasis is upon us. We have to 'Seek and Trust.' In other words, we have to go to Him first. He expects us to seek and ask Him and when He advises us, trust that He is right and do what He says.

Our own thinking can lead us the wrong direction time and time again. Our thoughts can be so convincing and often, despite advice from people, we can rush into a particular project and 'POW', it can go pear-shaped. We must take control of the over-active thought life that takes us over periodically. God is never wrong - never! We frequently are. Quite often, we are convinced that this is the right thing to do and instead of waiting on God, as he tells us to, we follow our own direction.

It is time to make some adjustments. We need to think differently and the only way we will do this, is to seek the direction of our Commander in Chief - Jesus. He knows the way because He is the way. And that is all we need for a successful future.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

How to achieve intimacy with God

"(13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
                                                                                                          Jeremiah 29:11-14.  NKJV

It is time to become serious with God. Time is running out. He could return to this planet any day. Would you be ready? Jesus knows our make-up. He knows what we think, before we even think it. He knows our heart. He knows what makes us tick. He knows our thoughts to other people and He knows what we do when we are on our own, when no one else is around.

He knows all of this and yet, he adores us and can't get enough of us. Why? because He is totally sold out for us. We're on His mind 24/7. What about you? Is Jesus on your mind 24/7? Are you totally sold out for Him?

We become sold out for God when we become serious about Him. Verse 13 tells us, 'And you will seek Me  and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.' In other words, when we live for Jesus wholeheartedly. When He becomes the most important person in our lives. When we seek Him in this way, we will find Him and spend more intimate moments with Him than we have ever spent before. As we reach for this intimacy, note in verse 14, that His word tells us that he will bring us back from our captivity. Captivity for us today, may be some kind of bondage or persistent habit that we are involved with that we find difficult to give up. As we truly find God, he promises to free us from this captivity and take us home.

Heaven is our ultimate destination, but until we achieve this, it is time to turn our lives around and begin to really live for Him. This means, taking Him to the supermarket with us. He's interested in this. Try taking Him into the garden; to that football or rugby match, that musical concert or when you're playing the drums, guitar or any other instrument. He's great company when you're fixing things around the home and on a walk He flourishes. Speak out loud to Him, don't worry if people can hear you. Anyway, in this day and age of technology, people are speaking remotely on their mobile phones out in the open all the time. Whatever you do or wherever you go, remember, Jesus is totally interested. If you never thought this, then involve Him and you'll soon recognise this fact. There is no need to ever be alone again, because He wants to spend every moment with you. 

Seek Him wholeheartedly and you will find Him

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Seek the giver, not the gift

"When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face LORD, I will seek.'
                                                                                                        Psalm 27:8.  NKJV

On occasions, we can treat God as if He is some kind of Glorified Santa Claus, by continuously asking, 'Lord, give me this,' and 'I need this Lord, please let me have it.' But God is much more than this. Yes, He gives to His children but only what He believes we need. Praying to win the Lottery, no matter how nice that may seem, is not one of those needs,. This falls into the category of 'wants.' 'Yes, but I could do so much with that amount of money; people would be so blessed as I gave to them.' No amount of justification will change God's mind with this one.

God expects us to work whenever that is possible. The Apostle Paul makes this very clear in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10. Verse 10 reads, 'If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.' You can't get it any plainer than that, can you? We should all be willing to support ourselves and our families. It's true, that through certain circumstances beyond their control, some people can't work - for a time. However, many can and should.

The Apostle Paul and many other people in ministry throughout the age, have worked to support themselves and their ministries. It is always helpful when a minister is supported financially by a church or body, but many aren't and they have to take jobs in order to manage.

As we read in yesterday's reading, God wants us to seek Him first and His righteousness. He then promises to take care of us. Seeking Him is seeking the giver, not the gift. The gifts come as we become close to Jesus - the giver. As we become sold out to Him, He commits Himself to taking care of every issue. I once heard one famous minister say to God, when the church had a very large bill, 'Lord, this is Your department - Your bill, not mine. I'm going home to get some rest and see my family. I know You'll take care of it. And God did. It may sound rather ostentatious for the minister to talk this way to God. But, this was the relationship that he had with God. Both him and his church, were faithful in their work; they trusted God for everything and their faith was rewarded. This is the way God wants us to be. Totally reliant on Him.

As we seek the giver and not the gift, placing Jesus in the driving seat, we will be blessed, time and time again. Try it!

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Giving to receive rewards

"(1) Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in Heaven."                       Matthew 6:1-4.  New Living Translation

The Pharisees made a great show of giving alms. They were always wanting to look good in the eyes of other people. This is why Jesus said, 'they have their reward.'( v2) The reward that they received was admiration from people, which really gave them nothing at all. The reward we seek is the one from Our Heavenly Father.

If we stop and think about it, what we do for others and what we give, goes unnoticed; but does that matter? If God sees what we do, that is all we need. He is the one that will reward us, not this world. However, if we give to the church or to a particular project or person, and announce this fact with the sound of trumpets, then that is the only reward we will receive - people's admiration, not God's.

You see, God doesn't want us to be all puffed up with pride and acting in a totally pious way. He wants us humble - 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, so humble yourselves before God.' (James 4:6-7 NLT) 

God wants us to use our money and our time, sensibly. With regards to our money, it is His in the first place, we gave Him our life and that means everything. So therefore, we need to give Him His share - a tithe which is usually a tenth of our income. From thereon, what we give to people, as a seed, we can expect a harvest from. 'But this, I say, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.' (2 Corinthians 9:6) This doesn't mean that if we determine in our minds to give £100 believing that we will receive back a harvest of say, £1000. It doesn't work like that; that is a business deal, the way the world would operate. We are on Kingdom Business and God will reward us with a harvest if we give humbly on a seed time and harvest time basis. 

We don't give to receive; we give to bless and when God sees this, He opens the flood gates of Heaven's blessing towards us. That is God's reward, not the world's. What we need to remember is, without God, we would have nothing. He is our resource; He is our life; He is the one who walks with us on a daily basis taking our hand when we become hurt and frightened. He is the one that matters and that is all.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Window in the Wall

"(33) but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands"
                                                                                                          2 Corinthians 11:22-33.  NKJV

Paul had suffered many things because of his faith; probably more than the average Christian could ever suffer. He was very humble and considered that his sufferings were the only things that he could boast about - not that he had undergone sufferings for Jesus, but that, in his weakness to alter this, God considered him blessed and rescued him, time and time again.
Paul was writing about the time that he was in Damascus, not too long after his conversion. He had been preaching about Jesus and the governor had his troops guarding the city to catch Paul, so that the only way out, was to be let down the wall in a basket, something that Paul regarded as a weakness.
This wasn't the first time that this type of thing had happened. Rahab, had helped the spies to escape by letting them down a wall too. (see Joshua 2:1-15.)

God is the great escape planner. He can provide for us, a way of escape at any time of the day or night. he can rescue us from issues with work-related problems, health-related problems, marital-related problems, financial-related problems and a host of other things too. He is wonderful at providing a window in a wall.

On many occasions, He may leave us in a position that we don't wish to be in. This is not because He doesn't want to help us. It is because there is a learning point that we have to master first. Think of Daniel, he had been cast into a lion's den - not the sort of place that anyone would wish to go. King Darius had not had a choice over this matter as it was a matter of law. That night, Darius had little sleep and early in the morning, rushed to the den to see if Daniel was ok. He was. God had sent an angel to shut the lion's mouth's and no doubt, Daniel had had a better sleep than Darius had.

Time and time again, we read about how God has provided a way of escape for His people, whether it be a window in a wall, an angel providing assistance or guards having their eyes closed so that a bible smuggler can get through the checkpoint to give out God's Word to people in need. At times, God turns up to show us the way. At other times, we need to look for that window in the wall opportunity; but one things for sure, God will be there for us when we need Him.

Perhaps you are in a place or situation at this time, that you don't wish to be. This is not a time to panic. It is not a time to start blaming people, or even God. It is a time when you need to pray, be alert and watch and be ready for when God provides a way forward. Whatever it is that is bothering you at this time, don't give up on God but trust Him, and be patient. He doesn't rush in when we want Him to. He waits for the right moment; that right window in the wall opportunity. This is why you need to be ready. That opportunity will come!

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Christian Love

"(43) You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' 
(44) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, (45) that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just  and on the unjust. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? (48) Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in Heaven is perfect."                                                           Matthew 5:43-48   NKJV

You may ask, why does Jesus demand that people have this love? It is because such love as this makes men and women, just like God. When we achieve this, we will be perfect. However, Jesus is not speaking here about the type of perfection we are used to. For us to reach this type of perfection is impossible.

There is a Greek word for perfect which is teleios. To give an example, a man who has fully grown is teleios, which is different from a half-grown youth. The man has reached his maturity. A student who has reached the finishing line of their studies at Uni, is teleios, whereas a new student just starting out, as no grasp of it yet. They still have two or three years to go to reach this.
In the Greek, a thing is perfect if it has fully realised the purpose for which it is planned. So, as we have the love that Jesus demanded - as we achieve it - we have teleios and we are the 'perfection' that Jesus spoke about here in v48. We have fulfilled the purpose for which we desired.

William Barclay puts it this way, 'The Greek idea of perfection is functional. A thing is perfect if it fully realises the purpose for which it was planned, designed and made.' 

The world's idea of perfection, is just too impossible to reach. People strive and walk over other people to try and achieve this type of perfection. Actually, the root of 'Perfectionism' is fear. People don't realise that while they are striving to achieve a particular goal they are stressing out if someone beats them to it, or if they can't fulfil what they're attempting the way they feel it should be achieved. A perfectionist lives in fear of not being able to reach what their particular target is and they will spend wasted time attempting to get there; to be the best.

If that is you, Jesus does not want that type of perfection. He wants us to love people as He does; in other words, for us to be like Him. It's attainable, but it takes willpower, dedication and the ability to shrug off persecution, bad-feeling and abuse from those who are our enemies at this time. To win them over - if that is possible - we need to show them just how Jesus is, and that starts with loving them, no matter what.

So latch on to the Greek version of perfect - teleios- because that is what Jesus was discussing here.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

He supplies all we need

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory, by Christ Jesus."
                                                                                                     Philippians 4:19.  NKJV

Are you ever amazed at how God supplies all we need? In my life, there has been many times when I have felt that I am paying out more than I'm taking in. Do you know what I mean? Add to this, tithing and we can begin to become quite anxious. I've even heard people say, 'I can't afford to tithe, I'd never be able to manage.' Really, the answer to this is that, we cannot afford not to tithe.

Years ago when my wife and I were first saved, I read about tithing and how we are robbing God, in a Christian magazine. I was horrified. We had young children to bring up; bills were coming out of our ears. It was quite stressful. I felt, that the Christian writer was out of line to write such a thing and I determined in my mind that I would not read any articles penned by him, again. 

The thing is, we can't hide from God, can we? Under conviction, we began to give a tithe out of our hard-earned, small income. From that moment. even though I almost went white overnight, God never let us down. we always had enough, more that enough at times. You see, it's God's money in the first place and as soon as we accept that fact and start giving to Him, he takes care of all we need.

Jesus Himself said, 'But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'  Matthew 6:33. When you think about it, it all comes down to trust; how much we trust Him, how far are we willing to go for Him. As He went the ultimate distance for us, it really means that we should trust Him with everything; not only our money, but our lives, our health, our families; all of it.

He has given you everything you will need in this life. Some things and people, may have been taken away, but He still gave you that joy in the first place. So therefore, determine to give Jesus the first place in your life. You'll never regret it.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com