Author: Allen Forte

Give Him what You wants and He will give you what He wants

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. The Lord delights in you when you want what He wants for you.

Psalm 37:7-8:” Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way.  Do not fret – it only causes harm.”

Psalm 37:11: “But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

It only causes harm.  I wish I had learned the truth of that statement long ago.  When we fret, we are given to trying to bring about something that only the Lord can do.  When we fret it will lead us to anger.  Anger will lead us to wanting wrath.  And wrath will lead us away for the lovingkindness of the Lord.

Indeed, fretting only causes harm because we are led to live by our own actions in reaction to the things happening around us. We may feel good about the actions we take before those who bother us, but this is not the way to live righteously before the Lord. The quickest way for us to get the Lord to act in our lives is for us to stop acting for Him.

I am not saying we do not have desires of our own.  We all do.  But we must learn to give our desires to the Lord so that in return we get His desires for us. It is probably not possible for us to have what we want and at the same time to have what God desires for us.

Psalm 37:11 is saying to us know how strong and how weak we are and to live in the humility of our weakness more than our strength.  Learn to withhold your strength for another day when faced with something that comes against you. If you learn to keep yourself from acting by acting to give the Lord your desires, He will honor your patience and the strength it takes to wait and not act.

God will repay us by acting for us when we decide not to act on our own. When we decide not to act in anger, He acts on what angers us.  When we decide not to fret or to be impatient, He acts for us on the things that would cause us to fret.

When you are bothered by this thing or that thing, find a place in the Lord to sit and to wait for Him to act for you.  In Him, there will be peace. And peace is the thing we need most when our faith is challenged by something we desire.  When we are at great peace with the Lord, we will have the strength to be at peace with the things that happen around us daily.

Now don’t misunderstand me on this.  Being at peace doesn’t mean we are to just accept that we are helpless to change things around us.  We are never helpless when the Lord is our Helper.  When we are in the Lord, being at peace means that we have given the desires of our hearts over to the Lord.

When we give Him our desires, we are happy beyond measure with this.  The joy we find in having given over to Him all that we want is more than anything that can cause us to worry or to stress.  Learn to be so happy in the Lord that He is happy to give you the things you desire.

When you learn to want what the Lord wants you to have, He then is happy to give you His desire for you and your desires for yourself too.  So, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him no matter what you are facing.  Do not fret at what is before you.  Do not become angry at what comes at you.  Do not fight with what is fighting against you.

There is strength is rest.  There is overcoming is waiting.  There is peace in humility.  There is change in restraint.  Exhaust yourself in waiting for the Lord more than in what you do to change the things around you. Remember, fretting only causes harm.  Wait and do not fret. Give the thing that won’t change to the Lord.

If He doesn’t change the thing, He will change you so that the thing does not prosper against you as it has before.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. Freedom in Christ means we now have freedom from our selves.

Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.”

1 Corinthians 10:24: “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”

I stopped to put gas for my car. While doing that, a recording from the pump started blasting loudly to me about buying a hotdog while I got my gas. All I wanted was gas and silence. Instead, while shopping for gas, I was shopped by the station for more money.

I was seated waiting to board my flight home.  Another passenger came and sat across from me. He started playing his music so loudly that I had to move.  I wanted to sit quietly and just wait to fly home.  I had to endure his entertainment when I didn’t want entertainment.

I ordered a pair of pants online using my phone.  Now I cannot stop advertisements for pants from popping up on my phone trying to get me to buy more.  All I wanted was to shop different vendors for pants.  I didn’t want to be shopped by different vendors for money.

We are past a time in life where we must learn that our freedom to do things will almost always impact the freedoms others have to be free from the things we do. It was a life changing revelation for me when I accepted that when Christ sets me free from something, my freedom shouldn’t become bondage to someone else.

Perhaps Galatians 5:1 is saying to us, “The Lord will free us from this sin or that sin, but we ought not by our freedoms snare others by our freedom.  Freedom from doesn’t mean we have the freedom to do as we please.  Perhaps freedom from means we are now free to depend on the Lord.

Freedom from has helped me see selfishness in a different way now because the Lord opened my eyes to the liberty I have in Him.  Before, I thought selfishness was only about being more focused on me.  Me first.  Me, myself, and I.  You get it.

But now I see more clearly that there is a second attribute of selfishness, and it is a sin that stands out before the Lord.  When I am focused on myself, I am not focused on or caring about others.  1 Corinthians 10:24 is saying to me don’t just be about what is best and good for me but think about and bring about what is best and good for others.

Yes, we have inherent rights as people to basic things in life.  We have the right to play our music.  We have the right to sell our products. We have the inherent right to be free and to live happily and fulfilled.  But these rights are to be found in a life with Christ.

When we seek to fulfill these rights outside of Christ we sin just as Eve and Adam did.  Eve saw the fruit and thought how pleasant it would be to have it for herself and for her husband.  They ate; they sinned. We must learn we come to be free to do as we like because we become free from the need to do as we please.

If you want pleasant-looking fruit or if you want a great paying job or if you want to own your own business, look first to find those things in the Lord.  He will help to keep your freedom to have from becoming snares to those seeking to be free from how you live with what you have.

Don’t allow your selfish focus on yourself to cause you to become an unwanted voice blasting out all over your surroundings “I love my hotdogs, why don’t you try one?”  Don’t allow your selfish focus on yourself to keep you from realizing what is good for you may not be good for others.

Christ sets us free from ourselves so that we can depend on Him for ourselves.  Christ sets us free from ourselves so that we can help Him provide good for others who are not yet free as we are.  We are freed from ourselves so that we can become free to depend on Him.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. To despise knowledge and wisdom and truth is to grow up into foolishness.

Proverbs 1:7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:20-22: Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares.  How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?  For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.”

I have done several messages on wisdom and on the idea of how foolishness steals the lives the Lord wants us to live.  You also know that I believe social media is one of the primary reasons we have become less wise and more foolish today.

It is important for believers to learn to live our lives and to base all that we do and say and believe more on facts than on the thoughts and opinions and feelings that we hear each day. We have a world today where many people believe that the facts we have about many things are not as important as the opinions we hold about those facts.

Many people believe what was true yesterday is now something that stands in the way of greater enlightenment. Understand what I am saying and test it against something greater – the Word of God.  Never test what is true against what you want to be truth.

Having baseless opinions shaped by how we want to feel is how we become foolish and scornful. Facts are more important than opinions. The opinions that matter most are the views that will point you back to the facts that make you wiser and more intelligent.

Proverbs 1:20 warns us that scorners find joy and happiness in scorning the views and positions of others. Scornful people are typically those who profess “The Truth” is not their truth.  They reject knowledge and understanding for their own feelings and opinions.

We are naturally going to be driven away from real knowledge when we are drawn to foolishness. Scornful people will sow the seeds of foolishness right into our hearts when we do not guard ourselves against any view or opinion that attacks the Truth.

For the believer, wisdom and knowledge is always crying out to us.  So, be on the watch for the scornful views and opinions of others.  Those who are scornful live in the middle of their emotions and never the facts.  They want to advance how they feel, and they want you to feel ashamed about how you feel.

They care more about how they feel than about the Word of God.  Don’t you be this way. Scornful people will not speak about the facts.  In fact, they cannot speak about the facts because they typically do not know the facts. Instead, they will attack you and your views simply because yours’ may be different from theirs.

They will ridicule you and they will hate you for believing in the Truth, believing they are standing for what is right and best. They believe they are right and that they hold the view the world must hold. When you hold a view that is different from theirs, they believe your view must be ridiculed and scorned to death.

The scornful are actually the very thing they say and hold others to be. They will say others are intolerant; but they are intolerant of beliefs of others. They will make the loving and the caring people feel and seem like they are unloving and uncaring. But in reality, the scornful are unloving and uncaring.

Today we have allowed scornful people to rise to the highest positions in our government, in our schools, in our church, in our judicial system, and in almost every walk of life. They have legitimized the illegitimate and the foolish among us simply follow along with them.

With their position and authority and status they have worked very hard to bring scorn and ridicule to those of us who simply want to live in Truth and in Love toward everyone.  Be mindful of who you listen to today.  A strong opinion is never more right than the knowledge, wisdom and the Truth we have in the Word of God.

Seek knowledge and wisdom and avoid the loud noise of those who shout how bad others are because you may be hearing the scorn from someone who is actually worse than those they speak of.

Fear the Lord.  Trust in Him.  Seek His knowledge and His understanding.  He will lead you with knowledge and wisdom that is the only thing that can stand the scorn of the foolish when it is directed at you.

Live a Delivered Life.

Place your expectations for others on the Lord rather than on man.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. We should learn to expect more from the Lord than we do from man.

Genesis 33:9-10: “But Essau said, I have enough my brother.  Keep what you have for yourself. Jacob said, no please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, in as much as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God.”

Psalm 118:8: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”

Essau had not seen Jacob in over 20 years.  It had been that long since Jacob had tricked Essau into giving him his first-born blessing of God. Although Essau had been very angry with Jacob, he did not hold a grudge against him now. Scripture says when he saw Jacob from far away that he ran to him and hugged him and kissed him and they cried.  Genesis 33:4.

How can it be that Essau would meet Jacob with love rather than anger? We typically think Essau was foolish to sell his birthright. On the surface we don’t see any relative good in Essau. But wait! Look a little deeper and this is what you will find.

Essau had to learn that what Jacob took from him would not help him deal with what was before him today. He had to give up his anger. Essau came to understand that his expectations for what was right and good for him had to be on God more than on Jacob. That’s Psalm 118:8.

Essau didn’t need anything from Jacob because he had received more than anything from God.  Essau set his sights on what God could give him more than what he wanted from Jacob. Essau’s expectations were set on God not on man.

Essau made it easy for Jacob to return home so that Jacob would not be separated from his home for the remainder of his life. Oftentimes, we make it impossible for people to get right with us because we place expectations on what they must do towards us.  Our expectations should be on the Lord more than in man.

When our expectations are on the Lord we can live with others without holding grudges or being offended by the things they will do to us. So, ask yourself today, who are you keeping away from coming home?  Who has offended you to the point that you have expectations they must meet before you will allow them back home?

You may never get the revenge you want from someone who has harmed you.  Instead, you will always get the ability to live free of vengeance when you ask the Lord to help you live free of hurt and pain. I know this may be a hard message for some of us.

We are taught by man to hold people accountable and to forgive but you don’t have to forget. I’m not sure that is what the Lord expects – at least of me. Essau was not worried that Jacob would return home and steal from him again. But this is exactly how many of us live. We place our expectations on the man more than on the Lord.

Man will never be able to live up to our expectations because we cannot free ourselves from the thought that we may be hurt or harmed again. When you place your expectations on the Lord, you won’t need man to do what only the Lord can do in man.

Learn to place your expectations on the Lord and not on man.  No matter what your expectations may be, ask the Lord to provide for you and He will do it. Then you will be blessed beyond what you could have been.  Then you will have more of the things you didn’t even imagine you could have.

Lord, it is in You and You alone that I will place my trust and all my expectations. In this, help me to be like the changed Essau was towards Jacob. Help me to be better for I know it is in You and not in man that I should put all my trust.

Live a Delivered Life.

You cannot live a changed life while holding onto the life you do not want to change.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. An unchanged life cannot live the life of change you want.

Matthew 9:14: “Then the disciples of John came to Jesus saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

Often times we think we must have something new so that we can live in a new way. That may work in our carnal lives, but it does not work with God.  The Lord wants us to accept that we must change before we can live changed lives.

Change in ourselves must happen before change with ourselves can happen.  We must change our attitudes before we can have the change that comes with better attitudes.  We must change what we believe before we can have what we didn’t believe before.

In Matthew 9:14 Jesus is telling us fasting is not what makes us believers but being believers is why we fast.  John’s disciples were like many of us today who look down on what others are not doing because we want to exalt ourselves above others.  Perhaps Jesus was also saying you cannot get to where I want you to be when you keep hanging on to who and where you are today.

Many of us are quick to say we will pray and fast for something to happen or for something to change in our lives.  But Jesus is saying, if you change your life before you pray and before you fast, you will be led to pray and to fast from a life that is already changed.

Jesus knows that the things of God cannot be received in a life that is unchanged. The new things of God must be fitted into a new life because the old life cannot contain what God has planned for you.  New wine should not be put into old wine skins. New wine will expand and rupture an old wine skin.

The changes the Lord wants for your life, and the changes you should want for your life cannot be fitted into your old life.  If you want your relationship with your spouse to be better, change yourself into a better person.  This will allow better changes in your relationship to come to you.

It is not likely you can have a loving relationship with anyone when you are not a loving person.  It is not likely you can have a respected relationship with anyone when you do not respect others.  Being loving and being respectful are the things that indicate you can have love and respect.

If you want to experience more of the Lord, change the way you live.  You cannot understand the Lord when you want to understand more of the world.

Abraham had to change where he lived before he received the promise God want to give him.  Jacob had to return to his home before he could receive the home God promised.  Moses had to give up a high position and status before he could have the position and status God wanted for him.

Paul had to give up his entire way of life before He could have the life the Lord offered Him.  All around us people are a clear example of how we must change.  And what about you?  What is it that you must change before you can have the change you want for your life?

If things are much the same for you and around you, perhaps it is not because things are too hard to change or because things are out of your control. Perhaps things are the same because you are the same. When the Lord is at work in our lives, nothing is ever the same in our lives.  Nothing!

We cannot have the changed lives we would love to have while we keep living the unchanged lives we love more.

Live a Delivered Life.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight.  When we live a life of repentance, we will produce a life of repentant fruit.

1 Samuel 16:7: “But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the Lord does not see as a man sees; for a man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Matthew 3:8: “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.”

I spend a lot of time repenting of my sins, but then I sin again.  I spend a lot of time asking forgiveness for my thoughts and my actions, but I have thoughts and actions that need to be forgiven again and again. I wonder why my life as a believer does not line up with what I say as a believer.

We sin, we repent, then we sin again in some other way.  Seems the cycle of sin and repenting and sin just goes around. Why can’t we break free of this?  Can we break free? Am I alone in this?

For me, the very thing I don’t want to do, often that is the thing I do.  The very thing I should do, that is the thing I don’t do.  The very thing that could help me is the last thing I go to.  The very thing that can hurt me is the thing I find easier to embrace.

It would be easy for us to simply conclude that we are sinners, and sin is what we do. I don’t want to be a hypocrite when I say I love the Lord, but still, I am not always obedient to what He says. Sin is indeed a big reason we struggle to live faithfully.  But there is more.

Sometimes I ask myself “what is wrong with me?” It seems so wrong for me to know better but to not do better. But the fruit I bear comes from the person I don’t want to be. So, it comes down to this for me.  I am not able to live a life of a believer on my own.

We need the help of the Lord at work transforming our hearts so that He can impact our actions and our behaviors.  1 Samuel 16:7, is telling us that the Lord looks deep in our hearts to know who we really are. What we say and do before others is not truest indication of the health of our walk with the Lord.

Matthew 3:8 then reminds us that there are people among us who have chosen their own brand of faith and actions based not on the Word but on how they want the Word to play out in their lives.  These people He says, should change from their way to a repentant way of life.

I realize now that I often try to live a changed life with a life that is not changed.  I keep bearing the same old fruit because I keep nurturing the seeds of the same old life. I repent of sin over and again because I do not plant an unrepentant seed into my life.

For me, to repent is an action I am willing to do over and again.  But repentance is the key to life change because repentance says I will live in a constant state of change from who I was to who the Lord wants me to be.  Repentance starts and never ends.

A repentant life is the key to having a fruit-bearing life. A repentant life is ultimately the work that must be done to transform our hearts so that we are able to produce fruit worthy of identifying our transformation.

I can clearly see now why I could not live better.  I was living off my own strength to repent.  But I needed the Lord to help me live a repentant life. I could not do it on my own nor can you or anyone else.  If you want to change your behaviors and your way of life, you must learn to live a repentant life.

When you learn to live a repentant life, others will see something in you that screams of your belief in the Lord. And even though you may trip or stumble along the way, others would likely see that as a stumble from something old that needed changing so that you can fall into something more of the Lord.

Scripture says the fruit of the Spirit of such a transformed life is:

• Love: Demonstrating a love for God and then for others, even when it’s challenging. 
• Joy: Experiencing joy that is not dependent on circumstances but rather rooted in your relationship with God.
• Peace: Living in inner peace and extending it to others because you are a child of God. 
• Patience: Learning to be ok with waiting until the right thing happens for you and for others.
• Kindness: Treating others with the kindness and compassion that the Lord treats you. 
• Goodness: Pursuing the Good God wants us to pursue always. 
• Faithfulness: Being faithful in your relationship with the Lord and what He can count on you to be. 
• Gentleness: Living so that your life brings gentleness and humility in all your interactions. 
• Self-control: Exercising command of yourself in all your ways so others can tolerate you.

When you are living a repentant life, you will produce the fruit that is the indication that you are working to transform yourself from simply having repented of your sins and turned from your past to a life that is guided to its future by a transformed heart that is changed more each day.

A repentant life is a quiet life.  It’s a life that allows the fruit to speak.

Live a Delivered Life.

Never allow your sorrows to speak louder than your joy.

Your Moment at the Well

The Lord’s insight. In your trials, let your sorrows carry you through to your joy.

Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Exodus 3:7: “And the Lord Said:  I have surely seen the oppression of My people, and have heard their cry, for I know their suffering.”

Romans 5:3-5: “And not only that, but we also glory in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope and hope does not disappoint.”

Life is long and we are told that in our lives we will have trials along the way at times. Why does the Lord tell us this?  Because much but not all of what comes to us in life will be good.  That is because we know that God is good, and He loves us. So, the Lord will bring good things directly to us. He has also given us the ability to make good of what may not be good for us if we choose. He does this because He loves us.

Romans 5 is saying to us that in life we will have many twists and turns. Whether it be our own lives or the lives of people we know and love, life will be remembered by the living.  Just as the death of Christ means the Life of Christ lives in us, Life will always live in some way in the living.

So, whether in life or in death we must learn to use the suffering that will come at us to help us learn to persevere because life is long. We should learn to never allow our sufferings and sorrows to cry out louder the good that we have.

Psalm 38:18 reminds us that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He will save those of us who are crushed in spirit. And Exodus 3 helps us to see that in our suffering, no matter what it is, we should never stop crying out in righteous sorrows to the Lord.  He will be close to us; He will hear us; He will see us, and He will move for us.

We can learn to find good in all that life will throw at us in the way we handle suffering. Don’t allow pain and suffering make to make God feel distant from you. He is nearer than you think.

Never allow your sorrows to speak about your joy. You do not have to feel guilty about being joyful even in the middle of your sorrows.  Let joy talk of your suffering.  This way you will be content with what you have, and you can find contentment with what you do not have too.

Never allow suffering to make you take on an attitude of defeat.  Defeat your suffering with an attitude of faith and perseverance and thankfulness and gratefulness.  We may not have all the things we want in life, but then, we always have more in life than what we really need and often more than what others have.

So, whether life is all good to you or you may find that life offers very little good where you are right now, remember, we have the ability to find good and to live in the goodness of life no matter what we face.  What we want but do not have is never a reason for us to allow our sorrows to speak louder than our hope.

Cry out in your needs and in your sorrows and the Lord will hear you. But think about others too. Learn to also to cry out in your fulness and in your joy.  We all have much more than we think.  And there are many who do not have what you have or who have what you are blessed not to have.

When we complain in our sorrows we are unable to appreciate the good that we have or the good others need. You don’t have to be happy with your sorrows but learn to make your sorrows experience your joy.

Live a Delivered Life.

The way out of the evil before you is to put the Lord before all that is against you.

The Lord’s insight. The giant you face may be the path to the freedom you want.

Exodus 14:16: “But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.  And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”

Genesis 17:8-9: “Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.  If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants.  But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”

Sometimes, believers can face hardships so daunting that they can feel like they are just a moment from being overcome.  In 2 Corinthians we are reminded that we can be hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed”.

Believing believers will face their challenges in an overcoming way.  Exodus 14:16 is saying to the Israelites the challenge before them was the path to take to overcome what was behind them.  Genesis 17:8-9 is saying to the Israelites never to choose to serve the thing that will want you to stop serving the God who Loves you.

Life is tough for us, and it is tougher each day.  But being a believer is what makes tough things just things.  What will overcome those who have no faith will not have an overcoming impact on those who have the faith to believe.

To the Egyptians, the Red Sea meant the Israelites would be their prize.  But to the Israelites, the Red Sea meant they were the prize of God.  The believer and the nonbeliever can face the same thing, but the believer knows they will get through because they are prized by the Lord.

To the Egyptians, the Red Sea meant the Israelites had no path to escape a return to bondage.  But to the Israelites, the Red Sea meant the Egyptians had taken the path to their destruction.  The believer stays on the path to believing even when being pursued by the nonbelieving.

To the Egyptians, the Red Sea showed that the Israelites were not smart enough to escape them. But to the Israelites, the Red Sea revealed the stupidity of the Egyptians in that the foolishness of God is greater than the smarts of man. No matter your situation, you must always follow the direction of the Lord even when it appears to make no sense.

To the Egyptians, the Red Sea was their chance to show the strength of the wrath they intended to put upon the Israelites.  But to the Israelites, the Red Sea was the way God would show the world how the strength of a dependent believing life will overcome all evil.

We are in a decaying time today.  Most everything that is of God is attacked or is being attacked by the foolishness of those who believe more in man than in God.  You may be in a difficult personal situation at the same time as you live in this decaying worldly time.  But now is the time to be humbly strong.

The Way Out of the things that come against us is to look for the Red Sea.  You see, to the believer, the Red Sea is what saves the believer while it is what drowns the unbeliever. The Way Out of the oppression of your giant is to determine to serve the Lord and never the giant that you face.  The way over the mountain before you is to wait for the Lord to move you as He leaves your mountain standing alone.

God is still God no matter what we face. He is beyond the things that can reach and bring to us challenges that might hold us back from the life He wants for us.  The Way Out of what is before you is to put Him before all that is around you.

Live A Delivered Life.

Being foolish at heart will make you foolish at life.

Your Moment at the Well.

The Lord’s insight. Foolishness lives in the heart of man more than in the mind of man.

Psalm 14:1:  The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

Proverbs 19:3:  The foolishness of a man twists his way and his heart fights against the Lord.

In the book of Luke 12:20, there is the story of a rich man who brags about how he will store up all his possessions so that he may have many years ahead to drink and to be merry.  But then God said to him, “fool, this night your soul will be required of you; then who’s will those things be which you have provided?”

Scripture warns us of two types of foolishness, one that is a condition of the brain and of the mind, and the foolishness that is of the heart or of life. Foolishness that is of the brain is like any other disease we may have.  We may need medical care to help us function in a normal way.

But foolishness that is a condition of the heart is like that which we have in our scriptures today.  It is a voluntary condition of our hearts. People who have brain conditions are few compared to people who are foolish at heart.

Foolishness of the heart is to fight for something you believe in and to fight against something God wants that is contrary to what you want and believe.  When we do this, we live without the benefit of wisdom or of understanding or even of the common sense needed to help us choose and make better decisions about life.

It is important to understand that when you are foolish at heart you will never have the sense to know that you cannot fight against the Lord and win even when you feel like you are fighting for yourself.

Nations have fallen because people foolish at heart have risen to the top to lead them into decay.

Strong established businesses have failed because people who are foolish at heart have risen to the top to lead them to the bottom.

Institutions like marriage, education, and even the idea of man and woman have been shaken to the point of failure because people foolish at heart have risen to expand what these institutions mean to include things that man finds easier to accept.

Even churches have fallen because people who are foolish at heart have tried to make the church look like the people around it rather than being a place where the people around it come to look more like the Lord.

And more importantly, entire people have fallen because people foolish at heart have led them to believe they can live with more freedoms without God than with God.  People who are foolish at heart will lead us to believe God is restrictive, but He wants us to be diverse and inclusive.

It is foolish to think that God is restrictive in any way.  God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is not a restrictive characteristic of God.  It is an inclusive loving trait of His.  All of us who long for His grace can find it when we become humble.

It is foolish to believe that the proud can have the grace of God just like anyone else. But the foolish will lead us to think this. So, we will establish in our hearts never to offend the pride of those who are proud of themselves just the way that they are.

Indeed, the fool referenced in Psalm 14 who says in his heart “there is no God”, is corrupt by their own hearts.  They do the work of what is evil, dressed up to look good. But none of them are good because their hearts are turned against the Lord and toward themselves.

Be mindful of the people leading you today. If you and your leaders call on the name of the Lord for wisdom and understanding you can believe their hearts are turned toward the Lord and not for themselves.

Fight against your own foolishness. You must obey your earthly authorities, but you do not have to have the hearts of your earthly authorities if they are foolish in heart.  God is gracious to give us all a place to belong.  The foolish man does not have to create a place for those they believe are forgotten.  God has not forgotten anyone.

Live A Delivered Life.

The Lord blesses you so that you are a blessing in the places where you live, work, and play.

The Lord’s insight. The Lord blesses you so that your mere presence around others is a blessing to others.

Lamentations 3:22-23. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed.  Because His compassions do not fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”

2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

God told Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that He would make Abraham a great nation and that He would bless Abraham.  He also told Abraham He would make even his name great and that he (Abraham) would be a blessing to others wherever he went.

When we look at all we know about Abraham, I see this one thing clearly.  He understood that he could not be a blessing when he held onto all the blessings God gave him.  Abraham didn’t walk around saying he was blessed to be a blessing.  Abraham walked around understanding that being blessed by the Lord meant he would be a blessing of the Lord in the lives of others.

In a way, on that faithful day when Abraham agreed to God’s request to leave his family and go to a place and land, he knew nothing of, Abraham was saying, I must leave the old and so that I can find the new.  Abraham was for us an example of what it means for us to leave our old selves and find new life in Christ.

We also know this about Abraham.  When he moved forward with God, he did not look back at his past.  He looked ahead to all that was before him.  Abraham did not wake up and do the things he did yesterday.  He woke up doing things he had never done before.

How is this so?  Well, because Abraham woke up every day being a new person, living out a new life, doing new things with God at his side.  He did not fret about what he didn’t know.  He did not worry about what came against him.  He did not question where he was because he focused on where he was going with God.

Abraham probably thought if anyone is as close to God as he was, he had to be a new creation.  Old things had to die so that new things could come. Every day Abraham lived a blessed life with God. And his life with God was a blessing to others wherever he went.

Abraham knew that no matter what he faced in his new life, he would be ok.  Because he had the mercies of God round about him.  He had the never-failing compassion of God showered upon him. And this was new to him each day.  So, he knew he would never be overcome by anything that he wasn’t prepared to overcome.

Just like with Abraham and God, With the Lord, we must let go of the old to provide a way for the new.  We cannot be a blessing when we hang onto the life and the blessing we received yesterday.  So, why don’t you ask yourself, are you a blessing?

Is your life, lived where it is lived, a blessing in the environment where you are?  Is your life an addition to what is there, or does it take from what is there?  Does your life make things better or does it make things?  Do others value you being around them more than they feel like you make no difference in their lives?

When you are a blessing, like Abraham, others will know the Lord is good to you because you wait for and respond to Him more than to people.  They will know that you live waiting for something great that they should learn to wait for. They will know that you live fulfilled and filled with hope that is in the Lord more than by seeking something that is of the world.

When you are a blessing, you do not need to do anything but be there for those who are looking for a blessing from the Lord.  When you are a blessing, others will see in you the faithfulness of the Lord and how great it is and how it blesses all those lucky enough to be around you today.

Are you a blessing?  Why or why not?

Live A Delivered Life.