Mar 21 - Increasing Faith

"According to your faith be it unto you" Matthew 9:29

When I give out a copy of Streams in the Desert, I always recommend that the devotion be read followed by reading the Bible chapter that the verse is taken from, in today's case, Matthew chapter 9. Before I get to Matthew 9, let's look at a few of the statements in today's readings:

"Praying through" might be defined as praying one's way into full faith,..." c-bug said once during devotions, "we cannot go around this or under this, we have to go through this." She was referring to the grief and mourning that lay ahead of her and her family.

"...no earthly circumstances can hinder the fulfillment of His Word..." Thank God that our ignorance, mistakes, wants, etc. cannot thwart the fulfillment of His promises.

So, reading today's devotion, I am left looking at the verse "According to your faith be it unto you." I read chapter 9 of Matthew and in this chapter there are several examples of Jesus healing according to the faith of those in need. "When Jesus saw their faith" bringing the lame man to Him, He healed (9:2). To the woman who touched the hem of His garment to be made well, He said, "your faith has made you well"(9:22). He raised the daughter of the ruler from the dead because the ruler believed He could (9:18). Two blind men begged Him for mercy, and He asked, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" and then He told them, "According to your faith let it be to you." Again he heals a mute and demon possessed man because of the faith demonstrated in the act of bringing this man to Jesus (9:32). Again and again, we see in this chapter the deomonstration of faith and the results of the faith.

In Luke 17:5, the disciples cry out to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith." This is what our prayer needs to be every day. Our faith is not to be left stale or 'as is' but instead, it should be increasing every day. This beggs the question, How?? How do we increase our faith? I have begun reading a book by E. M. Bounds (an author introduced to me in Streams) and I will share with you some of his comments that I highlighted yesterday (while I was getting highlights LOL):

"Faith is increased by exercise, by being put into use. It is nourished by sore trials."

"Faith grows by reading and meditation upon the Word of God. Most, and best of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of prayer."

"Doubt and fear are the twin foes of faith."

In closing for today, I leave this quote found also in E.M. Bounds book "The Necessity of Prayer."

"Ask of God more faith. Beg of Him morning, and noon and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down and when you rise up; beg of him simply to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the substance of things hoped for and of the evidence of things not seen." -anonymous

Hallelujah!

As I settled in just now and prepared to share my thoughts, I first read the last few entries by M and I realized I had been found out! I pretty much only post on the Lord's Day. Most days, I read the devotion in the book, but don't seem to find time to read the blog or post until Sunday. Thanks for encouraging me, M-- Each week, I really look forward to checking out this blog and hopefully finding something to say.
So, here it goes... God has been driving home the same point to me everywhere I turn. I mentioned it a little last week. I hear it from the people I talk to, it's in the books I read and today it was in two separate devotions. One being Streams and the other being The Christian in Complete Armor. Streams sums it up this way, "The saints' burdens are God given." The saints burdens are God given. The saints burdens are God given!!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah! I have known this since my conversion, but just now am beginning to learn to rejoice in this blessed truth.
From The Christian in Complete Armor... "Know this for certain: If we had not been Satan's prisoner first, we would not fully understand or appreciate our deliverance at last. God permits Satan's temporary reign in order to increase the saint's eternal joy. Does this sound like a paradox? Think about your own life, and you will find that often the occasions for the greatest joy arise from the ashes of suffering. Scripture gives three illustrations of great joy: the joy of a new mother, the joy of a prosperous farmer, and the joy of a successful soldier. The exultation of all three is harvested from hard soil. It costs the travailing woman great pain, the farmer many months of backbreaking labor, and the soldier grave peril, before they come to their reward. But at last they are paid in full. And it is a peculiar attribute of sorrow that its past remembrance so often adds a sweetness to our present joy."
I find myself greiving with people in their pain, but there is a little spot of joy in me, believing that the Lord can use their sorrow to mature them in a way that is otherwise impossible to achieve. I pray that their difficulties will drive them into the hand of God and will not lead them into bitterness. I pray that my difficulties will drive me into the hand of God and will not lead me into bitterness. The world looks different when we believe God's sovereignity. May we all have a godly perspective on sorrows and difficulties through the power of the Holy Spirit. May our "greatest joy arise from the ashes of suffering." Christ suffered enormously more than we ever will. May we rejoice with Christ in his victory over our sins and his care for our sorrows.

J

Mar 8 - Promises

There is only one Promise Keeper...everyone else is a promise breaker. What great comfort in knowing that He keeps His promises. In fact, where would we be if He did not keep His promises. Recently, my children and I read the story of Noah and there He made a promise to never destroy the world again by flood. I have to wonder at the very fact that He promises us anything to begin with. He certainly doesn't owe us a promise. It is only another indication of His love for us in that while we are sinners, He cares for us.
At the beginning of today's devotion reading. F. B. Meyer says of prayer, 'many times we ask for things which are not absolutely promised.' My children and I pray together every day. I noticed that every day they would each pray and include this phrase somewhere in their prayer, "God, help us to have a good day today." Last week, I said to them that I wanted them to think about what they each meant by that phrase "a good day" and then we would talk about it later that night during devotions.
Each of us prays along those lines...the 'having a good day' prayer...but what does it mean exactly? Are we asking God to give us all that we want that day? Are we being shallow and hoping He'll save the best parking spots for us, etc.? Are we being righteous and hoping we don't sin all day? Are we being servants and wanting to 'do good' all through the day? When we pray for a 'good day' are we praying God's promises? In truth, all of our days are good...each are numbered along with the strands of our hair. Each day from Him is a good day. How we see the day or interpret the day is negotiable, but that they are good is not questionable.
God doesn't change...another promise from God. We change. We are fickel. Our tastebuds change and our taste in clothes change. Our habits change and our hobbies change. Our priorities change. But God never changes.
God is so full of promises...great promises of love toward us...but how can we pray and receive the promises that we don't know about? We must first produce the promise...meaning, "Look, here, God. You say in Your Word that You will never leave me nor forsake me. I claim the fullfillment of that promise right now...in this very moment of discouragement. I call out to anyone who can hear me that my God will not leave me alone here...I cannot see Him but He is here."
Sisters, we are only here for a "moment"...and, truth be told, we are pressed on all sides for a purpose...to be squeezed until all that is left is what is pure ...what is true.
I hope that you are all blessed with a wonderful day of rest tormorrow.
I also hope that Jalamadreamer posts her Sunday tidbit...I do look forward to her Sabbath reflections on Streams.

leaving the stream for the well (just for a moment)

Taking a risk that no one will stone me for departing from Streams to take a drink from the well that is found in the Psalms, drawn by the pen of C.H. Spureon...

Psalm 41:12a
As for me, You uphold me in my integrity...

Your power enables me to rise above the reach of slander by living in purity and righteousness. Our innocence and consistency are the result of divine upholding. We are like drinking glasses that do not have a base but can only be upright while they are held in the hand. We fall, spill, and spoil all, if left to ourselves. the Lord should be praised when we are preserved from gross sin. When others sin, they show us what we would do but for grace. "He today, and I tomorrow," was the exclamation of a holy man when he saw another falling into sin. Our integrity is comparative as well as dependent; we must therefore be humbled while we are grateful. If we are clear of all alleged faults, we still have enough actual blame to make it shameful to boast (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David).

I must thank God for His divine upholding! And I must also thank Him for when He allows me to sin even while He is upholding me. "The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends" (Westminster Confession of Faith V.5).

Feb 28 - Praise Continually

Today's devotion talks about examples of some who go through life encouraging us to be of good cheer. It talks of some who have 'earthly want and suffering and saintly trust and peace." These people are referred to as "human sunflowers"...instantly, I had a vision of sunflowers popping up in my head...those pictured above are a few of my Sunflowers!

Feb 25 - March On

“I will give you every place where you set you foot, as I promised.” Then He set the boundaries of the Land of Promise – all theirs on one condition: they must march across its length and breadth, measuring it off with their OWN feet. Yet, they never marched across more than a third of it and as a consequence never possessed more than a third of the land.

WOW! I absolutely love the way this has been said. How many times are we satisfied with ONE THIRD – I want to claim the WHOLE of the promise – not just a part of it. One of the things I am learning in my suffering is that there is so much MORE to God. I want more of Him and I don’t want to be satisfied with the one third any longer. I want to walk across the wholeness of the promises of my God. He has so much in store for us – and I want to live IT! I think some people refer to this as living victoriously. Count me in on this one.

The JOY that God has given me when I thought all joy was lost is amazing and is enough for me to know that God wants to show and share so much more with me. And it is enough for me to do whatever is necessary to claim the promises. If He wants me to march across the barren waste land – then so be it – and I will do it in JOY. I love how he puts responsibility back on us. I absolutely love that this is something we get to do WITH God.

Feb 21 - Patience

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God..."

Phrases that come to mind about patience are 'Never pray for patience,' and 'Lord, give me patience but please hurry.' We joke about how we do not want to wait. We say things like, 'Oh, I could never do that, I don't have the patience.' But, what we are really doing is excusing our sin. Immediate gratification has become an idol unto us. We are greedy for it. It has made it near impossible to just be still...to just be. For instance, we rarely walk and bike, we drive cars in the fast lane and through the fast food drive thru. We are no longer tethered to our wall by our telephones...we now carry them with us wherever we go. We don't miss a call with call waiting. Even those old, stationary, bulky, box shaped computers are portable. We have text messages, instant messages, myspace, blogs, chats and e-mail. We have express check-in and 10 items or less express checkout and let's not forget next day delivery and '30 minutes or it's free.' We aren't ashamed to say, "I don't have the patience for this." We feel entitled to fume when we have to wait in line. We have forgotten that patience IS a fruit of the Spirit...the Spirit that dwells within us.


I am reminded of these song lyrics by Alabama:
I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why
Don't know why I have to drive so fast
My car has nothing to prove
It's not new
But it'll do zero to sixty in five point two
I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why
Can't be late, I leave in plenty of time
Shakin' hands with the clockI can't stop
I'm on a roll and I'm ready to rock
I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why
Oh, I hear a voiceThat says I'm running behind
Better pick up my pace
It's a race and there ain't no room for someone in second place
I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why


The next time you wait in line, I encourage you to look around at the people. Say a prayer for someone you see. Think about the day...where your loved ones are...pray for them. Pray for our country and its direction. Remember that God chooses our leadership...He places men in power and beg Him to have mercy on who that person is. Pray for the men and women fighting for our freedom...as you stand in line waiting for your fluffy coffee drink or more toilet paper, someone is giving their life or limb for your freedom to do so. Pray for the children in your church, pray for the marriages in your church...the sanctity of marriage and family is attacked in our culture and no one is exempt. And as you get caught up in praying, you may just find that someone behind you impatiently will say, 'Excuse me, it's your turn!' ...you'll apologize. Dare to say, 'Sorry, I was praying.'