Author: Allen Forte

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Believers do not need authority to live faithfully.

Mark 11:28: “And they said to Him, by what authority are You doing these things?”

Matthew 7:28-29: “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

With our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution includes what is referred to as the Bill of Rights.  It says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What is this idea of unalienable rights? Well, the word means something that is inherent to the person.  It cannot be taken away or denied.  It cannot be transferred; it cannot be refuted with human facts. Unalienable means it’s just you.  Life, liberty and happiness are inherently ours.  No one can give them, and no one can take them away.

When God said to Moses tell them “I Am” sent you God was saying I am unalienable.  God spoke as God about God. Jesus revealed to the people His unalienable Being.  He spoke of himself more than He taught what He knew. Jesus revealed Himself; the scribes taught what they learned about the Law.

A chemistry teacher may teach you about chemistry, but a chemist would reveal himself to you and by that you would learn chemistry. The chemist has unalienable authority because he shares himself so that you learn about what he knows. The chemistry teacher has learned about chemistry.  So, this gives the teacher knowledge authority. 

The teacher could be a bar tender who shares what he has learned about chemistry as a teacher. We don’t know what the scribes were who shared what they had learned. Jesus was not bartender.

It is important to understand this difference. There is a spiritual battle that goes on between the things that are unalienable or inherent and the things that are learned and man promoted.  It has been this way since Jesus’s time here and it’s that way today.

Since there was no law to argue against the things Jesus said and did, the scribes and the pharisees wanted to know who gave Jesus the authority to do the things He was doing. They questioned Him so they could find reason to take away His authority. You see, authority and power and status always want to keep authority and power and status.

You must learn to recognize the thoughts and ways of the scribes and the pharisees around you today. They would have you give up what is inherently right for you so you can buy into what they promote. You are a child of God because of your belief and faith in Christ. That is now your inherent nature.

To prove obedience to the law, the pharisees made it unlawful to carry your bedding on the sabbath day. You do not need to prove your faith to man by buying into what man says would accurately show your faith and life of a believer. To do that would be contrary to what is unalienable to us. The authority to be a believer is inherent in who you are.

When you were born, the first words spoken to describe you were probably “look, you have a son or daughter, a boy or a girl.” Doctors knew this because they saw some unalienable things about boys and girls that are unchangeable.  You were given a name based on these unalienable characteristics that were clearly visible the moment you were born.

Man wants to promote the man-view on many things that are inherent to us. They do this, just as the scribes and pharisees did, because it gives them status over others. Believers want to be like Jesus, but we don’t know how to react to man’s ways when it comes to our inherent rights and character given to us by God.

We want to be like Jesus, but we learn to live like today’s scribes and pharisees. Instead of knowing who we are, we allow the worldview to define and describe how we as believers ought to act and to behave.

If you are a believer, you are a child of God.  You don’t need any other validation to make that true. A nonbeliever can walk like you; can talk like you; can sing like you; and many other things they can do like you. But being a believer should be the inherent and unalienable reason you walk the way you walk.

Learn to recognize the battle that is going on in and around you.  Fight the ways of today’s scribes and pharisees with the inherent unalienable things that make you a child of God.  Don’t be taught to believe what is not inherent by those who challenge what is inherent to you.

You don’t need to come to believe that we have progressed to the point where we can believe marriage can be between anything other than a man and a woman. There are many things that will change over time, but there are many inherent things that time solidifies. Even if you have friends who may think otherwise, you must fight within yourself to stand for what is unalienable and never for authority.

God has given you many unalienable characteristics that make you like Him.  Don’t throw these away for something that makes you more like man. We can be sensitive and caring about how others feel even if they are confused. But we must not be confused by what others say and feel thereby giving up our unalienable and inherent nature that God has given us.

We need no authority from man to be the children of God He wants us to be.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Focus on the Lord to see yourself as you really are.

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.”

Isaiah 56:1-2: “Thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness.  For My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness is about to be revealed.  Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it.”

During Noah’s time, scripture says the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thought of man’s heart was only to do evil continually.  The Lord was sorry He made man – well everyone but Noah.  Noah it is said “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8).

When we look around today, we should wonder about the things we do as people. We didn’t live in Noah’s time but part of me believes Noah would have pulled his hair out at some of the things we do.  We don’t just have wicked thoughts and ideas; we turn what is right into what we call evil.

 Now we wouldn’t say our own thoughts are wicked or evil.  But we would quickly say yours are.  We wouldn’t say we are wrong about much, but we would quickly point out how wrong you are.  We do this because we don’t look within to learn how to see out. We use what we see outwardly in others to make others reflect on how bad they must be within.

I don’t believe this is the Way of the Lord. If we really want to see others as they are, we must learn to focus on seeing ourselves the way the Lord sees us. The thoughts we have should be the thoughts He has but this is not so for many of us.  The ways we go about life are not the Way He goes about life.

The Lord’s perspective about Himself and about us is different from our perspectives about Him and ourselves.  Perspective is more than what we think; it is the way we think about the things we think about. Seeing clearly is different for the Lord and for us.

The Lord cleans our heart and our minds so we can see clearly what is before us. But we will spend all our time trying to clean what is before us using an unclean heart and mind.  His ways and thoughts are not ours.  Faith and belief in the Lord cause the faithful to look within themselves to find understanding for what they see outside of themselves.

With the unbeliever, it’s the opposite. They look at what you are doing to make you see how different and how better they believe themselves to be.  Such a view and perspective bring sorrow to the Lord because we cannot accurately see out until we clean what is within.

If you want to see yourself as you really are, learn to use the heart and eyes of the Lord as the lens for how you look at others. And if you want to see others as they really are, learn to use the heart and lens of the Lord to see what is inside of you.

The Lord knows we do not listen to Him. In fact, we will argue with Him about what He says to keep Him from looking on the things we do and say. This is a twisted way of seeing and believing. I believe one of the reasons we fall to a twisted sense of what is true and right today is because we believe it is more likely others are more wrong than they are right and that we are more right than we are wrong.

But we are not the standard for what is right and wrong. we must stand on what is just – not simply for man, but what the Lord says is Just. Then we must do that which is righteous, not before man, but before the Lord.

Change your perspective and you will be blessed because you will lay hold of the very thing the Lord found in Noah that caused Him to give Noah grace in a time where wrath was what everyone had earned.

Live A Delivered Life.

The Lord’s insight. Being thankful cures us of the disease of selfishness.

1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Thanksgiving is a time of the year where we take time to reflect on life and to show our gratitude for the things we have and even for the hardships kept from us.  It is our way to let God know that we see His hand in all things about and around us.

Being thankful is the one thing that cures all of us from being selfish and self-centered.  It is God’s way of reminding us that we cannot control anything but the things inside of us.  We cannot make it rain; we cannot make it cool; we cannot make our own work to prosper; nor can we cure ourselves from those things that would disease our lives.

However, thankfulness can do what we cannot do.  Being a thankful person can make you love the people Jesus loves; it can make you love giving to the people Jesus wants to give; it can make you boast in the people Jesus boasts about; it can make you obedient to your parents; it can make you become holy; it can make you forgiving; it can make you keep your mouth shut about things that are unwholesome; it can make you love good; it can make you listen and learn; it can make you humble; it can make you love your life no matter your circumstances; and it can make you Love the Lord.

So, this Thanksgiving and everyday hereafter, learn to be thankful in everything. If you do this, you will have started your day doing at least one thing that is in obedience to what God calls for us all to do.

Being unthankful is disrespectful towards God.  It shows a lack of appreciation for the things God does for us that we cannot do. And remember, being unthankful is a quick way to get to the last days; don’t be in a hurry to bring about the end of your time and ours.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. A weak flesh is a strong enemy of the Spirit.

Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Galatians 5:17: For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus asked three of His disciples to sit nearby to watch and to pray while He prayed. He was very sorrowed about what was going to happen. He needed to be strengthened.  Praying is what He did to keep from falling to the temptation that comes with sorrow.

Watch with Me and pray. That was Jesus’ request of three of His disciples.  Lest you enter into temptation was His warning to His disciples.  Jesus knew that the disciples too would be very sorrowful when they saw what was about to happen to Him. He knew the events would cause His disciples to lose hope and to deny Him.

The disciples would have to live with the fact that they denied Him.  So, He explained how our flesh and our spirit fight against one another for control of our lives. But the flesh fights dirty. Your flesh doesn’t say you should fight against the circumstances you face. Our flesh fights so that we have a moment where we feel good. Denying Jesus made them feel good in the moment.  It made them feel safe.

Today, we must learn to watch and to pray.  Watching what is happening around us and praying that the Lord would strengthen us to endure the things we face is the one way we can strengthen our Spirit so that it can help us deny our flesh.

Our flesh does not like surprises; this is one of the reasons the flesh is weak. When we do not get the promotion we wanted at work, we are surprised to learn our boss did not believe we worked hard enough. We must learn to watch how we work. When our family doesn’t want to spend time with us, we are surprised to learn they do not like our attitude.  We must watch and pray.

I thank the Lord that I now recognize that the flesh and the spirit are contrary to one another. When we do not pray to be spiritually strong and confident about the things we watch for, we open ourselves to being hopelessly driven by our flesh. Our flesh wants us to give in, but the Spirit wants to give things over to the Lord.  Our flesh wants us to feel comfortable, but our Spirit wants us to feel confident. Our flesh wants us to believe what we want but our Spirit wants us to want what the Lord says we should believe.

Watch and pray over your children. They will be better for it.  Watch and pray over your marriage.  It will be better for it.  Watch and pray over your leaders. Everyone will be better for it. While the target of the flesh is the self; the flesh is the main target of our Spirit.  Watch and pray so your Spirit can have more dominion over your flesh.

The disciples had told Jesus they were all willing to die for and with Him. But when Jesus was betrayed and arrested, each disciple denied that they even knew Jesus.  Watch what you say.  Pray about what you have spoken so that you do not fall into the temptation to deny what you said.

Everyone has some type of sin we would like to overcome.  Jesus is telling us today in His Word, to watch and pray about the sins you say you will never do. The spirit is willing to walk with you when you say, “Lord, I want to be faithful, help my unfaithfulness.”  The flesh is weak and will fall when you say “Lord, I am faithful and will never be unfaithful.”

Watch and pray so you do not fall into the temptation to be tempted.

Live A Delivered Life.

The Lord gave up His life to God; why can’t we give up our lives to the Lord?

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Give what is dying of your to the Lord and He will bring to life that which death wants of yours.

Mark 15:39: “Truly this Man was the Son of God.”

1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed. 

Scripture says just before Jesus died darkness came over all the earth for about three hours. It says the sun was also darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two pieces. It says Jesus cried out “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

We have a God whose Purpose it is to serve us; He will never stop fulfilling His Purpose.  We know that God is eternal, but it is also reassuring to know there can never be an end to our God so for as long as we live, we need never die to the eternal God that He is. There can never be an end to our God. Jesus didn’t just die; He couldn’t just die.  He gave up His life.

What do I mean by He gave up His life?  Well, His heart didn’t just stop beating. He did not just bleed to death.  His lungs didn’t just fill up with water.  Jesus didn’t just give in to the death He knew was coming.  No, He gave His life to God.

When we speak, we must talk in terms of time and of the things we see before us.  In Mark 15:39 the Centurion said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God.” He said this because he thought the death of Jesus ended the life of Jesus.  So, he spoke of Jesus in past tense.

Our God is an eternal God.  He was, He is, and He is still to come.  What the centurion saw was Jesus finishing what He started by giving His life to God.  Jesus said it this way: “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.” He did this because there can be no end to His life.

He still is! We who are believers must know Him this way.  We who are believers and saved must come to know Him as He is and not as what we think He was.  We can say He died for us, or we can say He gave up His life to God for us.

This is important because it determines the nature of the relationship we can have with the Lord. Because if He died, we would be looking for Him among those who have died.  We would be looking for Him in the tomb where they lay Him.  But He did not die; He gave up His life. He didn’t belong in a tomb.

He still is because God is a God of the living not the dead. Death could not take what Jesus was giving to God.  We can learn from this.  If you want to give your life to the Lord, nothing can keep you from doing that.  If you want to serve Him with all your heart, nothing can keep you from doing that.

Whatever it is of you that you commit to the Lord, He will keep it from anything that would want to kill it.  If your work isn’t going as you would like, commit your work to Him.  He will give life to it.  If your relationship with your spouse is not working as it should, commit your part to Him.  He will make your part work.

He still is a Lord of the now.  He is not simply a Lord of the past.  He still is and because of that, you can know that you still are a child of His when you commit your ways to Him.  The Lord takes what is broken and dying in us and brings it to life and wholeness in Him.

1 Corinthians says, we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.  When we commit that which will die to Him before it dies, He transforms it from dying to living.  Learn to commit your dying things to Him so He can change them by bringing to them life that is new, life that He will never permit to die.  Give up your dying things to Him.

What a mighty God we serve; What a mighty God Who serves us.  He still is so you can still be.  When you give up your life to the Lord, He turns your dying things into living things so that you live on with Him.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. The practical affairs we face try to limit the Lord to the spiritual affairs we pursue.

Proverbs 1:1: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.”

Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

1 Kings 3:9: “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.”

It was a life-changing moment for me when I learned that there was never a moment when the Lord was not with me. It was hard enough for me to learn to live and to be spiritual when at church.  I didn’t realize church was more than just a place I visited on Sundays.

I realized I did not know much about the Lord, and I didn’t know much about myself. I knew just enough about the Lord to be saved.  I didn’t know I needed to then be saved enough to learn how to live with the Lord in all parts of my life.  I made my salvation an event.  Then I made church an event.  I made prayer an event.  I made reading scripture an event.

The problem with events is they happen and then we go on.  I didn’t have the sense to know that I needed to know a lot more than I knew. Nothing in scripture made this clear to me.  Now I know the Word of God cannot be treated like it is a book to read.  It is a Life to know; it is a Life to teach us; it is a Life to guide us.

We have the book of Proverbs to help us understand how to discover and live with the wisdom and knowledge we need to bring the practical aspects of living under submission to our spiritual development and growth.  King Solomon understood this when God asked him to ask what he wanted God to do for him.

Solomon asked for an understanding heart and not money.  He asked for discernment and not talents.  Solomon knew he didn’t know enough to lead himself let alone to lead other people.  We know that God gave Solomon what he asked for and more.  Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs.

I believe he wrote Proverbs so that we would all have access to the wisdom, knowledge and insight we need to live Godly lives in practical ways.  Proverbs 1:1 tells us the proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel given to us so we can:

• Know wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:2).  God wants us to live with wisdom and to be teachable in who we are.
• Perceive the words of understanding (Proverbs 1:2). God wants us to perceive truthful words of understanding that come from sources other than ourselves.
• Receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment and equity (Proverbs 1:3-4). God wants us to learn to accept instructions more than we want to give instruction.  He wants us to learn from knowing and doing what is right more than to learn from bad experiences.
• Give prudence to the simple while we are young (Proverbs 1:4).  He wants us to receive knowledge and discretion (Proverbs 1:4). He wants this to happen before we become rooted in our own ways.

So, we have the Proverbs of Solomon so that we have a source to teach us how we should act, respond, react and live in a world that may not acknowledge God. Proverbs help us learn to draw our conclusions about matters of life from the things the Word teaches us more than from the things man says.

When we learn from wisdom we will know to listen when the Lord tells us “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” The Lord does not want us to exclude Him from the practical affairs of our lives. When we don’t know any better, we cannot live any better.

A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.  Proverbs help you know how little you know about how much more you need to know so that you live like a child of God being taught by the Word of God living in a world searching for the presence of God.

Thank God for giving us the book of Proverbs to be our practical guide and teacher and reminder and source of knowledge so that we can live today with wisdom and insight that would take us a lifetime to gain.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. No man puts new clothes on over the old clothes he still wears.

2 Corinthians 4:10:  For we who live by Christ are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal bodies.”

Ephesians 4:22-23: “If you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, put off your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the flesh and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

I am ashamed to say, not before you or man, but before myself, that there was a long time where I did not feel like a new man. Unfortunately for me, more of my old self lived than a new self.  In fact, early on, I built my life – unchanged as it was – on simply knowing about Christ but not on being transformed by Him.  Thank the Lord I am a little better at being a new man today.

Perhaps there are many like I was.  It’s a common struggle for believers and nonbelievers to give up being the people they are to know someone they do not know.  It can be scary to consider.  Then I learned that new life means new life.  It is not just another day of life.  New means I am something now that I never that I was never before.

2 Corinthians 4:10 is saying to us, we don’t live for the Lord as much as we live by Him.  When we try to live for Him, it is easy to allow our old lives to try to live unchanged for Him.  But when we live by Him, the old is put to death and the new comes to life.

When by Him we learn to live, He is able to help us put off our old selves, our old ways, our old attitudes, our old desires and so forth so that we can become new.  If you don’t feel like something of the old you is dying daily, nothing of the old you is probably dying.

If nothing of the old you is dying daily, the new you cannot come to life.  The old you will trick you into believing you are new because your old person will speak of the joy of knowing of the Lord.  But these will be just words we use to tell ourselves and others we are new when inside, we are much the same as always.

Ephesians 4:22-23 is saying if what you have heard of Him lives in you, then what you have heard will be fast at work trying to help the new you come to life.  The Word of God isn’t just information we learn about God.  It is the Spirit and Power of the Lord working in us delivering up something to death so we can have more of His life.

This is the destiny of every believer. Our lives should be such that daily we give up something of our old life that those who are without Christ could never do. What the nonbeliever hangs onto, we should gladly let go. And we do this with glad hearts and with purpose knowing that in sight of men we may appear to be losers. But in sight of God, we are made winners.

Such is the life of Jesus – one of contradiction to the natural mind. We must learn to put off so we can put on.  For in weakness, He died on the cross. But in the power of God, He lives on today. And you and I are to be a part of His life, delivering to the cross daily the strongholds of our natural affinities, so that in our perceived weakness we manifest in our bodies the powerful life of Jesus Christ Himself.

Believers will openly talk of the virtue of knowing and obeying God, but we must permit the Word of God to work us to be what we say by mouth. Such is the life of Christ, and by this we will learn to allow what we know to live in who we are so that we become new each day.

If the old you is the way you know yourself, perhaps you have not allowed the Word to help you put off your old person so you can get to know the new person God wants you to be. If you will allow Him to help you to deliver yourself to death, that is all that He will need to come to life in you.

Then instead of trying to tell people about Him, He would through you, reveal Himself to others and He would tell them of Himself by Himself but through your new life. So, put off that old person who says “I want to know the Lord,” but who refuses to die.  Put on the new person who stays quiet in words but in attitude and in ways, a new person lives in humility and in power by the grace of the Lord.

Live A Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. A heart of generosity is what moves the act of giving.

Proverbs 11:25: “A generous soul will be made rich; and he who waters will also be watered.”

Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his deed.”

When we think of the blessings of the Lord, we typically think of receiving something from Him that we cannot provide or get on our own. But Paul, in the book of Acts 20:35 tells us to remember the words of the Lord that says; “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

And then there are times when we might say to others “have a blessed day” or “be blessed.” When we do this, I believe we are saying we want others to have a day that God fills with the wonders of His love and of His generosity no matter what is happening.

But for myself, I have wondered about this. I do want people to have days full of the blessings of the Lord. But I often feel like I should do more than just say those words. Words alone seem empty in some ways. They do not feed others if they are hungry.  They do not provide work for others if they need a job.

I believe I need to be more to others than just words.  But what does this mean? I think it means being a generous person before others in every way. God is Love and so He is very generous towards each of us. While many of us know Him for the things He does for us, fewer of us know Him for His great generosity that He has towards us. But it is His Love for us that shows up in His generosity towards us that blesses our lives the most.

The generosity of the Lord is the Love of the Lord in action. Proverbs 19:17 is saying to us to start our engagement with others with love and fill it with love in action.  The Lord will be more generous towards us when we are generous in how we are with others.

The Lord blesses the receiver with what the giver does; but He blesses the giver with more of the Love and generosity of the Lord.  This is what the Lord means when He says it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.  When we are generous towards others in every way, we bless them in ways they often need and cannot provide.

But now I know the Lord blesses the generous among us more for our generosity than He does for the things we do for others.  He is lavish in heaping upon the generous more of His great generosity.  He blesses the giver with what is important to Him that we should have.

Just like God did with King Solomon who asked God for wisdom and an understanding heart to lead God’s people.  God gave him that and He also gave to Solomon riches and glory and honor the things he did not ask for but all people wanted. It was important to God that Solomon had these things too.

If you want to be blessed beyond your imagination, learn to be lavish with your generosity beyond what others would ever imagine.  Never give to others thinking you will get something in return.  Never give to others simply from the abundance that you have.

A generous person will give from what they do not have as freely as they will give from their abundance. If others need time that you do not have, give them what time you have.  If they need shelter that you cannot provide, give them with what shelter you can.

They will be blessed a hundred times over when you do this.  But you will be blessed a thousand times more because of your generosity. When we are generous towards the poor, we lend our giving to the Lord and He uses it to bless others and to repay us with His generosity.

Remember, generosity is God’s Love in action. No matter what your circumstances may be, you always have the generosity of you that you can always give to others. I know that receiving good from the Lord makes us feel good. But being generous makes the Lord feel good about us.

We must learn it is a better feeling to have when we know just how generous the Lord is because of our generosity.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Don’t be weakened by the things that shake you.

John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

2 Corinthians 4:8: “We are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but in in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.”

Sometimes, harvesters will use a machine to gently shake an almond, cheery or some other fruit tree to cause the fruit to fall to the ground.  The machines are calibrated so that the shaking is strong enough to dislodge the fruit but not so strong that it will injure the tree.

Fruit trees have something of value that we want.  We will shake those trees because it’s the easiest way to harvest fruit. Shaking the tree may seem harmful or hurtful and we can be sure the tree doesn’t like it. But the harvesters are not harming or hurting the tree. They are helping the tree.

If the tree didn’t drop its ripe fruit, the fruit would rot right there on the tree. And in many cases, when fruit rots on the tree it impacts the amount of fruit the tree may produce next time. Fruit is meant to grow and to fall. This is what keeps the tree healthy.

In much the same way, the Lord will sometimes gently shake each of us so that we will grow and be healthy. We must produce and drop the fruit of our lives. The challenge for us is to recognize when it is the Lord who is shaking us to make us better or when it is the work of the world trying to make us fail because we see shaking as harmful to us.

John 14:7 reminds us that the troubles that come our way should not trouble us because the Lord has given us the gift of peace. Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of the assurance of your growth in any circumstance. When the Lord gives us peace, we are assured that no matter what shakes our lives, we will be ok because He wants us to grow and to produce more each day.

2 Corinthians 4:8 is our encouragement. It tells us that circumstances may come at us hard, but we will not be crushed. When things shake our lives, we are not thrown into despair because troubles do not make us fearful. We may be persecuted but instead of being left to ourselves, we are always brought closer to the Lord. We know the Lord will never forsake or leave us for someone or something else.

As the Lord transformed water into wine, He can do more and better for you. David reminds himself and the Lord of something like this in Psalm 30:11. He said, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have taken off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness”. The Lord shook David and reminded him that he had more to be joyful about than to be saddened by.

When we are shaken by life and by our circumstances, many of us will come to react with fear and despair. We do not grow and produce the fruit of our faith the Lords wants us to produce. The world is happy with us when we live this way. But the Lord wants different and better for us.

If we are willing, when things shake us, we can use those things to grow beyond our weaknesses so that we produce the fruit of our faith. Fruit that does not fall to earth or that does not fall into the hands of the Lord is of no value. Eventually the fruit we produce and keep will rot our lives as we try to preserve our lives.

Let’s learn to appreciate when the world is shaking our lives with negative circumstances and when the Lord shakes our lives to get us to grow and to produce more fruit. You don’t have to go around happy about your trials, but with the Lord, you can say to your trials “you may shake me, but you will not break me.”

Don’t allow the things that trouble you make you learn to live a troubled life. Never to allow hard things to make you hard. Never allow difficult things to make you difficult. Never allow things that challenge your joy to make you live a joyless life.

Don’t allow your troubles to trouble you. Don’t allow your heart to be troubled; let your life of peace in the Lord and dependence on the Lord bring trouble to the things that come to shake you.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. You can be filled when you glean the best of your life to the treasure of others.

Deuteronomy 24:21: “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.”

Isaiah 33:6: “Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is His treasure.”

I have a pecan tree in my backyard.  Every year the squirrels will come along about August and over the next few months they will haul away every pecan on the tree.  Not a single pecan is left – not a one. The squirrel reaps where it did now sow, and it consumes all that is before it without regard for anyone else.

But they are squirrels. They are a greedy gluttonous little bunch of rascals. They are wasteful too.  I am helpless to keep them from taking everything from my tree. Nothing I have done has kept the squirrel from consuming my pecans. They are greedy, self-centered and they act as if they are the only ones who can eat from the tree.

God does not want us to be like the squirrels who act based on their nature more than their hearts. We have the ability to reason and not to act based simply on our hunger. Our hunger should never make us act like a glutton. Our needs should never make us act like we are totally lacking. Our desires should never make us act like we are in total need.

In Deuteronomy 24, Moses tried to teach the people these principles by telling them to, “gather the fruit of your labor but don’t glean every fruit from the tree.” Often times, the same thing may have a different value and worth to you and to someone else based on the circumstances. You may have eaten earlier in the day, but to the person who has nothing to eat, what you leave behind is life sustaining for them.

The Lord wants us to know how empty life is when we are filled with all that the world has to offer but we are empty in offering to others the things that cannot be produced by the world. The world cannot produce love, but we can.  The world cannot produce an act of service, but we must.  The world cannot produce graciousness and thankfulness.  Thankfully we can do this too.

To the poor and the needy, even our leftovers can be their treasures.  Isaiah 33:6 helps us to see that the Lord treasures our fear of the Him – of not knowing His nature. One of the best ways for us to learn to appreciate the poor and the needy is to allow ourselves to be poor and needful in some way for something.

When you have much, you have probably learned how to reap and to glean. And those who have are probably slow to sow anything at all. The knowledge and wisdom they have, they treasure.  And they will keep it from others.  People who have much, work hard to make sure they have need of nothing they cannot use their treasures to get.

But listen.  It is not true that those who have much of everything generally have need of nothing. We may believe we have no need to have anything more than what we can obtain, but we all have a fundamental need to give something more of ourselves. We all have a need to help others. We all have a need to support others. We all have a need to sow for others.

The Lord is looking for us to sow into the lives of people and into the world. Sowing is what we get to do because we are blessed by the Lord. What we get from others and from the world cannot satisfy our fundamental need to sow as much as we get from reaping.

If you lack something in your life today, perhaps it is time to look at what you are sowing into the lives of others. The Lord tells us He did not come to be served but to serve.  Let’s take that mindset for ourselves.  We are not here to simply get from what we do, but as importantly, we are here to get to do for others what others cannot get for themselves.

You can be totally filled when you learn to glean from yourself all of yourself to make the lives of others more fulfilled.

Live a Delivered Life.