(CLICK THE TITLE) Good Morning Everyone. We are children of the most High God. We should be displaying that kind of behavior in everything we do and say. Are we really living up to the standard? This message today has been shared with my internet family before over the years and I felt it was time to share it again. Let it bless your spirit.
Today’s Prayer
(a personal prayer)
Dear Lord, help me to learn to really listen — to You, to my family, to those around me, and to be sensitive to the “unspoken,” for often it is in the “unspoken” that the needs of others are revealed. You are not only heard in a clap of thunder, or in the cry of a newborn infant, but also in the silence of a sunrise and the quiet desperation of an anguished heart. … Help me to listen, that I may bring Your love and comfort to others. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may develop a “listening heart.” In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Let’s eat.
Four Attributes of a Life God Blesses
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.”
– Isaiah 28:16
This is some mighty good food today folks. Whenever God calls us into a sanctified life, it is made up of four distinct stages. Christ often compared this process to building a house. First, we must prepare to build by laying a foundation. That foundation is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Any foundation other than Christ will not stand.
Second, as we enter a walk of faith with God, He allows each of us to experience trials, testing, miracles, and challenges in life that are designed to provide “faith experiences” that demonstrate tangible evidences of His work in our life. Some examples are: Moses’ burning-bush experience, Peter’s walk on the water, Joshua’s parting of the Jordan River. These experiences built the faith of these people. The depth and width of our calling is directly comparative to the faith experiences He allows in each of our lives. If God plans an international ministry with you, chances are you will experience a higher degree of faith experiences compared to another. The reason being, you will need to look on these to ensure your calling and provide testimony to His work in your life.
The third stage deals with motives. “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Proverbs 16:2). What is the motive behind my actions? Is it only financial accumulation? Is it to gain control? Is it to create independence? The primary motive must be God’s leading you to take such an action – it must be obedience. These other factors must be by-products of the decision.
Finally, we are prepared to take action. Here we must ask, “Do we have the skill, quality, and ability to enter into this activity?” So often we have not trained ourselves adequately to be successful in our endeavor. You would never want someone working on your teeth who had not been trained and certified as a dentist.
Before you begin your next project, ask yourself these four questions.
1. What is the foundation this project is based on?
2. What experiences has God demonstrated in my life that indicates His involvement?
3. What is my motive for entering this activity?
4. Do I have the skill, quality, and ability to accomplish the task?
Answering these questions will tell you whether God will bless your activity.
Quote of the Day
Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own poor performances or goodness’s, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.
Horatius Bonar
WITH HOPE AND FAITH
REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
GCKRS HELPING HAND FOUNDATION – THE RELATIONSHIP FACTORY