Paul says in Romans 11:36, “Everything comes from God; everything exists by his power; and everything is intended for his glory.” Paul encouraged the early Christians at Rome and he is encouraging us now to remember that God is the Source of ALL things!
God is the perfect and on-time Source for everything we could ever need, desire, or want. But, we have to receive Him as our one and only Source by faith. The Word of God will renew our minds, feed our faith, and get us where we need to be to receive the supply God has for us individually and collectively. If we allow it, God will be the only Source for everything we will ever need.
That being said, when we are alone, God will be our comforter. When we are nothing, God will be our everything. When we are sad and lonely, God will be our song and our joy and when we become weak and helpless, God will be the Source of our strength and assurance.
In his book, Jeremiah confirmed in Chapter 17:7 that when one places their full confidence in God as their source: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
When we choose Jesus every day, we draw from the Source of all resources. He is the love we need, the joy that will motivate and renew us, and the strength that will carry us through all of our days no matter what or how much supply we require!
A comforting and eternal promise throughout Biblical Scripture is that God will never ever leave those who are His. Hebrews 13:5 says, in part, “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (NKJV). In a world that is so ever changing and where people are constantly leaving, whether in a family, relationship, or in death, God’s promise of never leaving is super encouraging.
The promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you” was first given to Israel and Joshua before entering the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 31:6). Encouragingly, Moses reminded Joshua that, as the succeeding leader, “the Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8). Joshua’s task of taking the Promised Land seemed impossible, but with the Lord the task was possible, for He would not forsake Joshua.
Never will I leave you. At salvation, Christians are permanently indwelt with the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself (Acts 5:3–4). Christ affirmed that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would be with His followers always (John 14:16). Also, Jesus told His disciples that He would be with them “to the very end of the age”—a promise that has to include present-day believers (Matthew 28:20). The God who promised to never leave Joshua is the same Lord who says He will never leave believers today.
At the end of the day, this eternal promise should give us courage, hope, confidence, and rest because praise be to God; He will never leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5). We are never ever alone, “never [ever] abandoned by God” (2 Corinthians 4:9, NLT), or ever separated from His eternal love (Romans 8:38). God is omnipresent or present everywhere. His eyes “range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
As faithful and unfortunately at times “struggling” Christians we have to be reminded that we have a peculiar and unique hope in Jesus. We undoubtedly know that Jesus was victorious over evil and will one day return to make everything right. This should encourage us to have hope in the midst of suffering or difficult times. But let’s be honest, we don’t always faithfully lean on this peculiar and unique hope during times of trials, persecution, and adversity!
Paul, the author of the letter to the Church in Rome, frequently encouraged believers in Rome not to give up amidst of their present trials, persecution, and adversity. You see, the first half of Paul’s letter corrected some of their ill-thinking, while the second half focused more on their character, actions, and response to their fiery trials, persecution, and adversity.
Paul knew that affliction(s) produces steadfast character within us. When we choose to endure through suffering, Jesus forms strength and confidence within us that we couldn’t attain otherwise. James also reminded in Chapter 1:2-4 to, “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
In Romans 12, Paul encouraged the believers to let love be the primary motivation for everything they do. When love is the foundation of who they are, then God can renew and transform every area of life. When they allow God to transform their character, that’s when they’re able to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
So today, I encourage you to let these three things create within you a stronger character in your personal own life. Paul unpacked these three powerful principles to encourage us but more importantly to help mold and transform us into the image of Jesus who was faithfully joyful in hope, patient in suffering, and faithful in prayer. We all need to take some time to think of a few ways that we can become more like Jesus in each of these areas in our own lives!
God is our waymaker. God is always working behind the scenes in our lives and He has a good plan and a purpose for each of us. The Lord said this in Isaiah 43:19, ”For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
You might not see the Lord at work yet but just trust that God is making a way through the wilderness and He promises to make rivers in your desert to refresh you and sustain you. God promises to make a way through the storms of your life and to pave a pathway through the mighty waters that threaten to overwhelm you.
My brothers and sisters, I get it; trusting that God will make a way out of no way can be a hard pill to swallow when everything around you is not as it should be. However, it behooves you choose hope and continue reading your Bible because I guarantee that you will find someone that God delivered out of their situation(s), circumstance(s), and/or mess(es).
In fact, The Old Testament of the Bible is full of stories of how God rescued the Israelites from their enemies. The people of Israel weren’t always obedient to God and sometimes they forgot their love for Him. There were times that they even forgot all the miracles that God performed for them on their behalf! But God always made a way for Israel when it seemed there was no other way for them to be saved as a nation from their enemies.
God stepped into impossible situations for many people that we read throughout the Bible and He made a way for them. And just as God made a way for Israel and many others, He will make a way for each of us in our situations despite the level of intensity!
Never forget what God does for one, He will do for another because God is effectively impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced, and incorruptible. He is equally immutable, meaning He is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore (Hebrews 13:8).
We’ve all heard the expression, “you are what you eat.” Well, one of Solomon’s ‘word to the wise’ statements found in Proverbs 23:7 (KJV) suggest a different but related truth—that we are what we think: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Unfortunately, this translation fails to give contemporary readers a precise understanding of what “as a man thinketh, so is he” really means.
In short, the Hebrew verb translated “thinketh” in the Authorized Version of Proverbs 23:7 means “estimate” or “calculate.” The clause might more accurately be rendered “as one who calculates with himself, so is he,” or “he is like one who is inwardly calculating.”
Now to find the context of this ‘word to the wise’ statement you must read Proverbs 23:6-8. Essentially Solomon is encouraging his readers to understand the heart of a stingy (miser) person. According to most modern translations, the ninth saying of Solomon instructs seekers of wisdom to avoid greedily eating food served by a stingy man. Craving such a man’s delicacies is dangerous because his generosity is false. With a warm welcome, he says, “Eat and drink,” but his heart is not in it.
In contrast to not dining with a stingy man, this wisdom nugget can also be viewed as a form self-awareness or warning. In other words, you become what you think about. If you are constantly thinking negatively your behavior or attitude will most likely reflect or cast negativity. Look at it from this perspective, your mind is like a garden and your thoughts are like seeds. You will either do one of two things: you can either grow flowers or weeds. The decision is yours!
So, the life lesson points from today’s message is don’t eat with stingy people and make sure your not that stingy person!
Today, let’s just take a moment out of our day to simply honor God! Despite the things in our life we simply don’t understand, the things in our life that have adversely impacted our worlds, and the things in our life that have brought us down to our knees in a fetal position God is always worthy of our commitment, adoration, honor, worship, and praise!
God wants us to come to Him humble like a child, but the Bible never exhorts us to have “childlike” faith, at least not in so many words. In Matthew 18:2 Jesus says that we must “become as little children” in order to enter the kingdom of God. The context of Jesus’ statement is the disciples’ question, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (verse 1). In response, Jesus “called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the ‘lowly’ position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’” (verses 2–5).
There is no virtue in being childish, but as Jesus implied in the scripture above, we should never outgrow our childlikeness. As His children, God first wants us to be vulnerable, in a position of recognizing our need for His care and protection. Second, God wants us as His children to trust Him—to trust that He made us, knows us, loves us, is with us, and enjoys us. Third, God wants us to remember no child is fully developed —let alone perfect.
My beloved brothers and sisters, as children of God, we are always in a process of growth (aka) works in progress, which our Father understands and accepts. God made us to be dependent on Him, with needs such as love, affection, acceptance, and a sense of belonging. God highly esteems dependence as a characteristic of our ongoing condition and position with Him. WE never outgrow our NEED to lean on Him, TO BE weak or vulnerable SO THAT HE CAN BE STRONG on our behalf.
Undoubtedly, children are valuable, unique, and special to God Himself. Don’t ever forget that He planned for us from the beginning and knit us together in our mother’s womb (Pslam 139:16). We are never too grown of Jesus and when we emulate the faith of a child, we are not responding childishly, rather we are simply choosing to take God at His Word. As children trust their earthly fathers, we should trust that our “Father in heaven [will] always meet all of our needs according to the glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
