4GIVEN

What is self-reflection (examination)? According to the New Oxford American Dictionary self-reflection means to meditate or seriously think about one’s character, actions, or motives.

Self-reflection (examination) is an important part of living as an authentic Christian, but by nature and unfortunately, we prefer self-deception or better noted, self-deflection. Deflecting is easy, convenient, and comfortable. We want to believe ourselves better, smarter, and more ethical than we really are, so careful, Spirit-directed self-reflection (examination) keeps us honest with ourselves and with God.

Self-reflection (examination) is a critical tool used to combat the spiritual deception rampant in the world. The Bible tells us to confess our sin to God, which requires a certain amount of self-reflection. If we can never find any sin to confess, then “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

In 1 Corinthians 11:28, Paul gives the church specific instructions in taking communion aka the Lord’s supper. He said, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for the disrespectful way they were participating in the Lord’s Supper. Some were hogging the food, and some were getting drunk on the wine (2 Corinthians 11:20–22). They were told to examine themselves or they would face judgment; some had even died as a result of their lack of self-examination (1 Corinthians 11:30–32).

Self-reflection (examination) requires balance and too much inward reflection is unhealthy because it can shift our focus off Jesus and make self-improvement our God. A.W. Tozer, in his classic work The Pursuit of God, says, “The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very thing he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him.” Self-reflection (examination) should always point us to the foot of the Cross because ultimately we must humbly admit our inability to change ourselves and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit within to transform us into the image of Christ. Self-reflection illuminates the light of Truth working in and through your life.

“Investigate my life, O’God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— the guide me on the road to eternal life” (Psalm 139:23-24). I love the word choice used in this Message paraphrase. Investigate, cross-exam, and test are words you would hear in an official courtroom setting.

It’s obvious that David is throwing himself at the mercy of God’s Supreme Courtroom in a prayer of petition. In the paraphrase above, David pours out his heart to God. David wanted the Lord to search him, know his heart, try him and know his thoughts. David’s prayer clearly embodies the true meaning of active humility. 1 Samuel 13:14 tells us that David was “a man after his [God’s]own heart”. This simply means that David longed and pursued justice and mercy for himself and for God’s people. He longed to do works that were pleasing to God, even after he had stumbled (sinned-repented) and despite the times his life was at risk. He showed many times that he loved and desired truth and integrity more than his own life.

If we are honest, we know that if we ask the Lord to thoroughly search us, then He will find imperfections in us. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” Perfection is not found in sinful man, it’s found in a sunless God!

With that said, when the Lord shows us our wrong attitudes, thoughts, words and actions, He wants us to do what David did and confess that we did wrong. David confessed his sin with Bathsheba in Psalm 51:3-4. “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.”

The turning point of transformation begins when we turn to God with open and complete transparency. We find in David’s transformation, as a result of this prayer, was made whole, full and complete. Israel was brought into harmony with God; and David’s son Solomon brought to Israel one of the most prosperous reigns Israel had ever known.

Keeping this in mind, let us consider praying to God in the same sequence as David prayed: First, let’s pray that God might know us; then pray that God might cleanse us; and lastly, pray that God might direct us.

MONEY says, “Pursue after me but, you’ll never have enough of me.” TIME says, “Pursue after me but, you’ll always complain about me.” FUTURE says, “Pursue after me but, you’ll struggle to reach me.” BUT GOD says, He is the distributor of all MONEY (Matthew 25:14-28), He transcends TIME (Col 1:16-17), and He holds the FUTURE in the palms of His holy hands (Phil 1:6).

Choosing to pursue God leads to deliverance and undoubtedly, God has never forsaken those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 give us a stark reminder that, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek [pursue] Him.”

Brothers and Sisters, we pursue or seek God because it’s our prestigious duty and because God is the SOURCE of our strength, peace, understanding, spiritual gifts, spiritual cleansing, anointing, wisdom, healing, deliverance, protection, growth, and to mention, our salvation. God is not a resource and He should never be treated like a supplemental vitamin.

Irrefutably, there will never be another god before Him and there will never be another god after Him! God is the King of kings and Lord of lords (I Tim 6:15, Rev 17:14, Rev 19:16).

Therefore, stop pursuing the perishing things the world has to offer and start pursuing the One who spins the world on its axis, not to mention galaxies known and unknown. Those who pursue God embrace His Word and ways while shrinking from those of man’s. They see the reality of the godly pursuit, which is permanent, versus the earthly pursuit which is temporal.

So,how do you actively pursue God? Here are a few tips to consider: read/study scripture-start anywhere, talk to Him (prayer), listen to Him (obedience), and get involved in a ministry (serve).

It’s not too complicated! In fact, pursuing God is like playing a game of hide-n-seek that He allows you win….every time you pursue Him.

Psalm 150:6 says,”Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Before we start lifting holy hands and shouting, let’s review a few Hebrew translations for the word praise. One Hebrew word for “praise” is yadah, meaning “praise, give thanks, or confess.” A second word often translated “praise” in the Old Testament is zamar, “sing praise.” A third word translated “praise” is halal (the root of hallelujah), meaning “to praise, honor, or commend.” All three terms contain the idea of giving thanks and honor to one who is worthy of praise.

In Psalm 150 praise is used 13 times in 6 verses. The first verse provides the “where” of praise—everywhere! “Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. The second verse teaches “why” to praise the Lord: “Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.” In verses 3-6 we discover “how” to praise the Lord-with a sound: a variety of instruments, dance, and everything that has breath.

After reading these six verse we are able extract the “Who”, “what”, “where”, and “how” to praise, but “when” is it the best time to praise God?

For some of you, praise is an everyday thing, but for most people praising God doesn’t come easy especially when things aren’t going well.

I want to help those that falsely believe praise is contingent on their circumstances. I want to help encourage those believers that recognizes the “Who”, “what”, “where”, and “how”, but struggle with the “when”.

If this message is speaking to you, I want you to know that the deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of the pain, thanking God during trials, trusting Him when you are tempted to lose hope and choosing to love Him when He seems distant. Praising God is incessant and not contingent on your circumstances.

Remember this: When you are at your lowest-God is your Hope, when you are at your darkest-God is your light, when you are at your weakest-God is your strength, when you are at your saddest-God is your comforter, and when your pain is too much handle, God is your burden-bearer!

Brothers and sisters, it’s our duty and ‘response’(ibility) to praise God. Our praises to Him should never be contingent on our circumstances. We praise God because that’s what we’re created to do in the first place!! Psalm 100:3-4, says,“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

Fortunately, at the end of time, all of God’s people will join in eternal praise of God. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship Him” (Revelation 22:3).

“The LORD made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.” Jeremiah 51:15

When we appraise Joseph’s latter life we find a man living large and in charge. He rose to be the 2nd highest authority figure in all of Egypt (Genesis 41:37-40). However, when we review the full abstract of his life we find that he was the first biblical character to be human-trafficked by his own brothers and even falsely imprisoned.

If you’ve read his story then you know that his latter was much better than his former. As mentioned above, he ended up the number two guy in all of Egypt, saving millions from a devastating famine, and his own family, including the brothers that betrayed him.

Again, when you review the abstract of Joseph’s life how good do you think God’s favor and call upon Joseph’s life felt….good? Heck no, it probably felt horrible when he was in the pit, betrayed by his own flesh and blood brothers. I bet it wasn’t very comfortable when Potiphar’s wife lied about him making an advance on her, and then later thrown in jail for a crime he didn’t commit!

Bothers and Sister, the point of my message is that we should not equate God’s favor with a trouble-free life. Victory at the end of storm always looks and feels better after the storm passes! However, God’s call during the storm often requires discomfort because it’s really not about comfort, but more about Christ’s mission to save people of every tribe, nation, and tongue while He transforms you into His perfect imagine!!

It’s not uncommon for God to use your testimony as beacon of light to help guide the lost and backslidden back to Him. The Apostle Paul was called and favored by God, but he was also stoned, shipwrecked, bitten by a snake, mocked, beaten, imprisoned, and experienced all kinds of persecution for his radical conversion. Not to mention the Old Testament prophets. Ezekiel had to lay on his sides for over a year (Ezekiel 4) and according to tradition, Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own countrymen.

Case and point, God’s call and favor aren’t always easy, but they’re are always good. We can look to Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection as our greatest example of this biblical truth.

We should always find solace in the fact we are messengers of the Great King, once crucified, now glorified. Our King calls us onto the front lines of a battle with eternal stakes. While we face the gates of Hell themselves, they will not prevail against us (Matthew 16:18). While God’s call and favor is inexhaustible, indefatigable, and immeasurable, they also pack a big punch that reflects the tapestry of God’s glory, goodness, and love for His creation!

High Noon Prayer (a little late😇):

Dear Heavenly Father, when we trace the course of our life, we see that the line isn’t straight and that the pattern is much like a bee’s line, where there are turns and loops, not to mention crossovers. For some, this may seem confusing because the pathway to salvation is fairly linear while the course to sainthood isn’t. Let us not rest on our laurels but avail ourselves (mind, body,and soul) at a moment’s notice to fulfill the plans that You have for us.

O’God, we understand that we can’t completely fathom the empirical truth of the Gospel but we look with great expectations to the Holy Spirit to take intercession on our behalves, expressing the groaning in our hearts that are too difficult to articulate into words.

Lord Jesus, thank You for granting us undivided hearts, that way we will rely on the stability of You faithfulness and not the instability of our trivial craftiness. Let us be as the jelly fish, who neither swim nor control the direction of their journey but relies on the flow of the currents and drifts wherever they take it.

Abba Father, as the hearts of Your children are in the hands of the Lord and like the waters, You take us where You want us to go. We surrender to Your mighty hands. With that said, help us to break the pattern of running in the hamster wheel of life, being filled with anxious thoughts and fickle man-made solutions. We have been equipped with time, talents, and treasures to advance Your kingdom’s agenda forward, and we will not be apprehended or compromised by the silent bigotries of low expectations. HALLELUJAH, we rejoice because we serve the MOST HIGH GOD and though our dreams and blessings may tarry, we choose to stand patiently because as Your word says in Hebrews 10:38, “The just shall live by faith alone, through Christ alone” and there is nothing else needs to be said! So Father, we close this petition with praise and we shout THANK YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND WHOSE WE WE ARE IN YOU!! In Jesus’ life preserving and elevating name…amen and amen!

I had someone recently ask me in response to one of my Be Strong FB campaigns, “What can an invisible and imaginary god do?? If god could help us we surely would not be controlled, divided and deluded… wake up and face reality.”

My unapologetic response to this individual was that my reality is my God and my God is my reality. Furthermore, the goal of a Christian isn’t to strive for a trouble-free existence, but to better handle the ongoing nature of unexpected trials and unwanted circumstances. The basing of our goal on the solutions to our problems keeps us continually tied to their outcome. Christ came to teach us that our solution rest only to our salvation in Him. (Read I Peter 4:12-19)

Brothers and sisters, too often we go to God in efforts for Him to fix our problem(s) when all He wants to do is fix us first! When we learn from Him how to have peace regardless of our circumstances, then we can break-free from our sufferings in spite of what is going on around us! Our relief and/or victory is not contingent on resolutions or rescues but on Christ alone!

The good news is when we experience trials and sufferings James reminds us to count it all joy (James 1:2-4), Paul reminds us that Christ’s power rest on us (2 Corinthians 12:9), and Peter reminds us the Spirit of God rests on us during trials (I Peter 4:14).

At the end of the day, we all want peace and tranquillity, but while evil is still prevalent in our world we will have to take heart (courage) and continue to be strong (Joshua 1:9)! Which is why God inspired me to create the BE STRONG yard sign. GOD unequivocally knows that with Him on our side and as long as we stay connected to each other we will get through this TOGETHER.

The late and beloved Apologist R.C. Sproul said, “Jesus suffered for us. Yet we are called to participate in His suffering. Though He was uniquely the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, there is still an application of this vocation for us. We are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ.”

A competition is an event where people get together to see who is the best at something. Someone who takes part in a competition enters in as a competitor and each competitor competes against each other! With that said, why do so many churches feel the need to compete against each other and to take it one step deeper; why do so many church folk (partitioners and ministry leaders included) compete each against each other within the same walls of their own church of body!

Some of you don’t think this is a prevalent issue in the body, but it is and trust me this has been an ongoing issue since the birth of Cain and Able!

We can choose to dub it as competition, but when you peel that mask off it’s nothing more than jealously and envy!

Paul addressed this spirit in I Corinthians 12:25-27 and the Message paraphrase nailed his disposition spot on:

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”: apostles prophets teachers miracle workers healers helpers organizers those who pray in tongues. But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.”

While the Bible does not forbid competition, it does forbid the heart and attitudes that so many have when they do compete. The Scripture is clear that we are to do all things for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The church need less competition and more collaboration. The church needs teamwork not teams that work against each other! Attracting Christians from other churches and not reaching people who far from God is like a farmer moving grain from one silo to another. The farmer may think he’s getting something done, but he’s only wasting energy instead of using it to harvest more crops (Matthew 9:35-38). As it stands the church has never been about us versus us, rather it has always been about us versus ‘principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Ephesians 6:12).

The best way for the ‘global’ Church to grow is to work together to reach people far from God and teach them to follow Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).

According to TopVerses.com out of more than 100 bible verses, Romans 8:28 ranked number 14 and just so you know the ranking is based on how many times each verse is cited on the web. Now, don’t ask me how they calculated the results from that algorithm, but based on my personal observation, I believe their ranking estimations are accurate and they might even be spot on.

So, what’s all the hype about this top 20 verse? Paul said, “And we know that God causes All things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” If this bible verse don’t awaken something in your spirit, I suggest you re-reading until you have committed it to memory. There is so much meat to this verse and Paul did an exactly job of simplistically granulizing the power in it’s declaratory promise!

With that said, the Message Bible’s transliteration gives us an expanded paraphrase as to what the ‘how’ God causes everything to move on the ‘good’ side of the equation and it reads as follows: “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Boom!! Did you catch that? The good that God causes to work together is being accomplished by way of His Holy Spirit! If you didn’t know, the works or gifts of the Holy Spirit are enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3 and they are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

These gifts/works are very similar to the 9 fruits of the Spirit recorded in Galatians 5:22-23. However, I’ve learned the the gift/works of wisdom corresponds to the virtue of charity. The gift/work of understanding corresponds to the virtue of faith. The gift/work of counsel (right judgement) corresponds to the virtue of prudence. The gift/work of courage corresponds to the virtue of fortitude. The gift/work of knowledge corresponds to the virtue of hope. The gift/work of Reverence corresponds to the virtue of justice. The gifts/works of Wonder and Awe corresponds to the virtue of temperance.

So, if you are in a situation like many of our brothers and sisters adversely impacted by the aftermath stemming hurricane Laura, don’t forget that God will turn it around for your good. I know it’s easier said than done, but in times of adversity and uncertainty it behooves us to focus on the promise and not the problem! We should recall what Joseph said to his trifling brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You meant evil against me, but God used it for good.”

Brothers and Sisters, when we choose to operate and flow in the 7 gifts/works and the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit, God will always post ice Lyn respond to our faithfulness. He and He alone will turn that negative into a positive because He will never end on a negative and trust me this is a spiritual algorithm no-one on this planet could ever articulate into human sense!

#Periodt #BeStrong