Live Delivered

I did not intend to do a message today, but obviously I intended wrong.  I will be short.  It’s the day after Christmas 2021.  

Yesterday, Christmas Day 2021, I was outside in my yard talking with a neighbor for a few moments.  He said Christmas was a happy day for him, but he was already sad because tomorrow—now that is today—would come, and all the struggle and hurt and pain of life would return.

I was hurt a bit by his vision of Christmas, and more by how he saw life in the days after Christmas.  I said to him, “If Christmas is any joy to you at all, then all the days thereafter should be to you even greater joy.”

Why is that?  Because the birth of Christ was Only the Beginning of the life of a resurrected Christ that lives now in each of us.  What does that mean for us?

In Luke 2:20, the bible tells us the shepherds who were told of Jesus’s birth returned happy after seeing Him.  Scripture says it this way, “Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told to them.”

You cannot really be happy and fulfilled unless you are full of praise and adoration for the Lord.

Today is the day after Christmas, and I am glad for our sakes because today marks the beginning of the rest of our lives that are now filled with the Life of Christ, who is a gift that will never grow old.  He is a toy that will be new every time we touch it.  He will be like a Christmas dinner and never like leftovers.  He will be an old friend but new every day.  He will be the same old job that feels like a new job each week.

So, don’t look at today and think Christmas is passed now for another year.  The day itself is gone, but it is only the beginning of the rest of the days of what Christmas means to us.

God deposited praise and glory into your life yesterday.  Let it work in your life so you can live each day now full of joy and happiness and peace with the things that are around you.

It’s only the beginning.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

In Luke 1:1-38 scripture gives the account of the coming birth of Jesus.  What had been spoken of by prophesy many years before was about to come to be.  How could that be?

In verse 12, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias, a priest.  The angel told him that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son, and that he would call him John.  This would be John the Baptist as we know him.  Zacharias and his wife were very old, so Zacharias said to the angel, “How can this be? I am an old man, and my wife, Elizabeth is well advanced in years”?  In short, he said, “How Can This Be?  It is past possible for Elizabeth and Me to bring forth a child.  We are too old.”

Well, Elizabeth was indeed pregnant.  And she did have the baby John, nine months after the angel’s visit with Zacharias.  Now, God’s plan for John to go before Jesus and proclaim His name was in motion.

A short time after this, the angel Gabriel goes to Mary. In verses 30-31, he tells her she is going to have a baby, and hers will be the son of God.  At the time, Mary is still a virgin and unmarried, so she doesn’t understand how two humans are going to be parents to the Son of God.  So, she said to Gabriel, “How Can It Be?  I am not married, and I am still a virgin.”  Mary was saying it is not past possible for me to bare a child, but she still asked, “How can it be, given I’m not married yet and I’m still a virgin.”

An angel appeared a third time in the story of Jesus’s birth.  This angel goes to Joseph, Mary’s future husband, and tells him that Mary is indeed pregnant with the Son of God and that Joseph should go ahead and take her as his wife.  Joseph did not understand how but he understood what was happening.  So, he took Mary as his wife.  But, if he is anything like the others, he probably said to himself, “How can this be?”  Joseph probably thought, not only is it possible it is probable.

• Zacharias was greeted with some amazing news from God.  He responded in doubt, “How can this be?”

• Mary was greeted with some amazing news from God.  She responded in awe of God, “How can this be?”

• Joseph was greeted with some amazing news from God.  He responded in obedience.  He did as he was told to do, but asked, “How can this be?”

We are in the time of year when we observe the day of Christ’s birth, Christmas.  So, I have a few questions for us:

• How can it be that doubt in what God says to us cannot stop what God wants to work in us?

• How can it be that questioning what doesn’t seem possible yet does not stop God from doing what is not possible yet?

• How can it be that obedience, even when we may not understand, does not hinder God’s plans when He wants to use us?

Well, I don’t know exactly.  But this I do know.  How can it be that Jesus would be with God; and then He would be born of a virgin; and then He would become flesh and live among us; and He would live and die and be raised again from death for our salvation.  How can it be?

Well, this is how.  Christmas marks the day Jesus the baby, yet a savior, was born.  How can it be that all the things we doubt, all the things we question, all the things we cannot believe possible, all the things we do not understand so we do not obey, will never stop Him from loving us?

I didn’t have an angel visit me today to give me an answer, but this is what I feel.  How can these things be possible and how can many more things of God will be possible?  Well, it’s because Christmas is the day God made it possible to be given the gifts of you and me and all others who would come to know and love Him.  To God, Christ’s birth is the day God Himself was given the most treasured gift He could ever have: the opportunity to love you and to have your life with Him in eternity.  How can that be?  I don’t know, but I’m glad it is.  And I’m glad God is glad to have this day for Himself.  Let’s make this a Merry Christmas for the Lord and give Him all our hearts.  Merry Christmas Lord.  Live a Delivered life.  Love you.

Joshua and the Israelites are about to cross the Jordan river into the Promised Land, but the city of Jericho stands in their way on the opposite bank of the river.  Scripture records an encounter Joshua had at this moment in history.  

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand.  And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”  

Joshua 5:13

I guess we should think this was a natural thing to do.  Joshua was about to take God’s people across the Jordan and into the land promised to them, so he wanted to know if this Man with a sword drawn was going to stand with or against them.

The Man’s response was interesting.  It is one we should consider.  He said to Joshua, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” 

 Joshua had queried the Man the way many of us would have.  He asked two questions.  Are you for us?  Or are you against us?  The Man answered both questions with one word: “No.”  No, I am not for you, and no, I’m not against you.  Joshua asked the wrong questions.  The question he should have asked is, “Who are you?”

Sometimes we make assumptions about the people and things in our lives.  We ask if they are here for this thing or that thing when we should be asking, “Who are you?”  And often we ask questions when we probably should start by saying, “This is who I am.”  This Man’s response to Joshua almost demanded that Joshua tell Him who he was.  In a way this Man was saying to Joshua, now that you know who I am, tell Me, where do you stand?  Are you for Me or against Me?  Joshua had things all backwards.  Are you on My side or are you for My adversaries?

So, the questions for you and me now are these.  Where do we stand?  On whose side are we?  When we are on the Lord’s side, we will learn to wait for Him to lead the way for us.  The Israelites walked around Jericho for seven days; when we are on the Lord’s side, we will learn to walk in the places He tells us.  The Israelites didn’t talk while they walked around Jericho until the end of the last day; when we are on the Lord’s side, we will learn to walk around our adversaries while we keep our mouths shut.  Often, we talk more than we should, and often, we walk less than we should.

The people of Jericho saw the Israelites walk around their city daily for that week.  They had time to realize these were God’s people even though the people said nothing.  They had time to see God’s ways by observing the ways of God’s people.  Perhaps some had time to change their ways because they saw the ways of the Israelites.  Your quiet walk can be a powerful example.  When we are on the Lord’s side, people will see our ways, and that more than anything will be the reason they may change their ways.  

So, ask yourself today, where do I stand?  If it is for the Lord, then we might learn from Joshua and the people.  Let’s learn to walk quietly before our adversaries.  This way we won’t confuse them with our walk that doesn’t match our talk.  Stand up and walk quietly if you are on the Lord’s side.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

In a few days, our family will attend the wedding of our third son and his beautiful young bride-to-be.  As I prayed about their wedding and prepared some thoughts for the occasion, I was reminded of the account of a wedding in scripture.

In John 2:1-12 scripture speaks to us about a wedding that Jesus attended.  The first two verses say this to us, “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.”  It says the host ran out of wine before the event was over, so Jesus’ mom went to Him and told Him they had run out of wine.  Jesus responded by telling the servants to fill six stone water pots with water.  Then He told them to draw some of the water from one of the pots and give it to the host of the wedding feast.  When they did, the host realized it was wine, some of the best wine he had ever tasted.

Verse 11 says to us, “This was the beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and He manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.”  The “beginning of signs,” it says.  Signs may be thought of as miracles.  Miracles may be thought of as things that happen that cannot be explained, yet they are as real as anything we can see or taste or feel.  Miracles are beyond explanation, but they cannot be denied for their reality.

As I prayed for my son and his soon-to-be wife, I thought of this scripture, and I thought how I wanted the young couple to start their lives just as miraculously.  You see, we don’t know much about the people who got married that day, but we do know this. They were wise enough to invite Jesus to their wedding.  But why?  I’m sure they didn’t do it because they anticipated they would run out of wine.  Why, then, was Jesus the son of God invited to their wedding?

I don’t know why.  But I can see another miracle happened because they had the sense to invite Jesus to be there.  I believe someone knew this would simply be an event about a wedding if Jesus were not present.  But with Him present, it would be an event about a marriage.  You see, the wedding is what we get happy and excited about, but the marriage is what Jesus gets happy about.  A wedding is what brings two people together, but Jesus is not in the business of weddings.  Perhaps that is why He told His mother His time had not come yet.  Jesus is in the business of creating marriages at weddings.  He wants to come to weddings so He can put two lives together with Him in the middle, creating a marriage of three people to live together as one.  He manifests His glory in this way.

Two people becoming one person with Christ in the middle.  That is want I can see from this event.  That is what we want for our children as we celebrate their wedding.   I can see that perhaps Jesus was not at the wedding in Cana of Galilee to perform a miracle with water.  Maybe He was there to help people understand that the joy of a wedding must carry into the life of a marriage with two people in Him together.  Could it be that He was there because He wanted us to be ready for the marriage that needed to come?

It was no coincidence that Jesus was invited to the wedding.  I believe the people knew they needed Him to turn a wedding into a marriage.  First with Him and then between them.  You see, a wedding focuses on the joy of two people coming together with their prospects of building lives together.  But a marriage is about the wonders of being the bride of someone else.  A marriage is learning how to live in a loving and selfless way so that you make the life of someone else better than it could have been without you.  When we invite Jesus into our lives in this way, we ask Him to help us become one in Him so that we can help to magnify the glory of who He is to all the people we know and love.

The wedding is simply an event that many will forget in time, but a marriage is a life that will be lived with Jesus in the middle for all life that remains.  Jesus is always looking for a bride to share life with and to live with and He is always ready to enter into a marriage with us when we are ready to live with Him as His bride.  So, He is always happy to be invited to our weddings.

You see, Jesus knew a wedding without Him would lead to an empty marriage.  And a marriage that is empty of the Lord is like:

• Baking a cake without adding sugar;
• Having an apartment building without any tenants;
• Having schools without any students;
• Hospitals without patients;
• Rivers with no water;
• Church with no spirit.

So, as we are ready to get married, let’s make sure we invite to our weddings the One who can make the marriage complete for now and ever after.  I have seen the love for the Lord in our son and in his soon-to-be wife.  I want to make certain that the Lord is invited to their wedding to be a part of the beginning of their lives together.  I want the miracle of the marriage for them, just like the one Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I saw this riddle one day.  It said, “I am something that follows you wherever you go. I normally come in pairs. I get messed up by water, wind, and rain. What am I?”  I will give you the answer a little later in this message, but I want to use this to get you to think about things of God that follow those of us who faithfully live for Him.

We can see the answer to this riddle in the book of Joshua.  God tells Joshua, “No man shall be able to stand before him all the days of his life.  As God was with Moses, so He will be with Joshua.  He will not leave Joshua nor forsake him.”  This is an astonishing promise that God makes to Joshua.  In a time when it seemed man was an enemy to every other man, God tells Joshua don’t worry; no man will be able to harm you, not in all the days of your life.  Then He says to Joshua, “Just as I walked with Moses from the time I brought him out of Egypt until his death, I will be there with you.”  He reassures Joshua that He will never leave nor forsake him.  Amazingly, God is not going to find something better to love than Joshua.  By the way, God will not find anything better to love than you, either.

But Joshua was asked to do one thing.  Joshua was to depend on the Lord rather than on himself.  Seems like a small ask, but it is the one thing that God asks of us that we almost always fall short of in some way.  We like to think that we must fight our own battles.  We like to think that we have to take care of our own enemies. We like to think that we must make sure people who bother us must pay the full extent of what is possible.   We like to think that people who bring hurt and harm into our lives should be removed.  And we like to think that if anything good is going to happen in our lives, we must make it happen.  But the way we like to think is the way satan likes for us to think.  It is not the way God’s wants us to think.

Psalms 23:6 tells us, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.”  God wants us to know goodness and mercy are things He gives to us.  They are not to be sought after by our own efforts.  Rather, they are the product of lives that follow after Him, lives that are dependent on Him for all things.  When you follow God, goodness and mercy will follow you.  When you love God, Love will follow after you.  When you honor God, honor will follow after you.  When you are faithful toward the Lord, faithfulness will follow after you.  When you favor the Lord, Favor will follow you.

God says, surely these things will follow you when you follow Him.  When you allow Him to be your shepherd, goodness and mercy will follow you.  When you allow Him to lead you, goodness and mercy will follow you.  When you allow Him to set your path, goodness and mercy will follow you.  When the Lord is your shepherd, you must be the sheep.  When the Lord is your shepherd, your life is His responsibility; your posterity is His responsibility; your safety is His responsibility.  Surely then, goodness and mercy shall follow after you wherever you go because He is leading you.

And that brings us to the answer to the riddle.  Footprints.  Footprints come in pairs and are easily disturbed by rain and the wind and water.  But here’s the best part.  When Jesus is leading you, the set of footprints that are always following you will be His.  He will lead you to step where He has stepped.  So what you see before you are the His footprints leading you to places where His goodness and mercy can be found in your life.  What you see behind you is goodness and mercy following after you.  You can never capture what follows you unless you pursue after the thing that is leading what you seek.  Pursue the Lord and you will have goodness and mercy following hard after your life, just like footprints.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Today’s message may be a little difficult for some of us to understand right away.  It was difficult for me to study and hear what God said to me about being a true person.  I didn’t even know what a true person was.  My mother used to tell me often, “That is not who you are,” especially when I was about to do something she knew I shouldn’t do.  My mom knew something about me that I didn’t know.  How could that be? I have always wanted to be the best person that I could be.  Don’t all people want that for themselves?  My mom never really said this is who you are; she simply pointed out who I was not.  So, one day, I asked God, not expecting an answer, why wasn’t I the person I was supposed to be?  Then it came to me.  I wasn’t who I was supposed to be because I kept trying to be who I was not.  Now that sounded like my mom.

Then one day I was studying Chapter 23 of the book of Proverbs.  It is a chapter that warns us about hanging out with the wrong people because they do not have our good at heart.  Perhaps verse 7 of this chapter is the most widely known.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”  Many of us paraphrase this scripture to say as a man thinks so is he.  That is partially true but not all the truth that God meant.  Paraphrasing is ok, it’s just not exact.  I always tell you this is what a scripture means to me.  I do that because I want you to know there are times when I am paraphrasing something that you should read for yourself.  With this verse, there is more said than what we typically say.

But is a man really the product of his thinking?  Does the life of a man follow his thinking?  I believe the answer to both these questions is yes.  But Proverbs 23:7 is meant to be taken in the context of the verses before it and after it.  When you read the verse in context, you will see that the reference to “for as he thinks in his heart” is not talking about you or me but about other people.  Now don’t be excited too fast.  For you and me are the other people when someone else is considering this verse; they are looking at us.  So how does this help us know our true persons?  Because in verse 6 it tells us we should not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies.  Now a miser is just a reference to a person we might associate with.  Then there is more to verse 7.  It goes on to say that the miser tells you to eat and to drink, but his heart is not with you.  He does not have your best interest at heart.   Verse 8 says the morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up.  I see this saying what the miser offers to us will come back out of us.  Our true persons lie at the heart of the motives we have in our hearts.  We must know the heart of ourselves if we are to know the heart of others.

Proverbs 23:7 is powerful.  We must be careful of how we think because thinking leads to actions.   Life follows our thinking.  If we want to know our true selves, we must learn to recognize the true persons of others.  To recognize the true persons of others, we must get past what they do and get to the heart of who they are and why they do what they do.  A miser is one who hoards things of value and gives away as little as possible or nothing at all.  But this also means this person has already hoarded the good things of the heart before we see it in their actions.  The miser’s heart is not with you; it is after something it wants from you.  Oh now, there is our warning.

So, in a way we should be careful never to hang around someone whose heart is to hoard what is good and to give sparingly.  Why?  Because it will cost us something.  They give so they can get more.  They love so they can get more love.  They friend so they can be thought of more as friends.  They care so they can be cared about more.  They forgive so you must forgive more.  Whatever you give the person whose heart is not with you, it will cost you something of your heart.

A person whose heart is with you will have you at the heart of their lives.  They will give you all they have.  Their every motivation will be for your best interest.  And finally, they will let you see their heart and their true motives because they want you to know the true person they want to be for the true person in you.

So, we ought to let the true persons in us shine through to the eyes and hearts of others.  They will see our actions for sure, but they will also know the true persons of the heart we are.  We must learn to be who we are at the heart of our motives.  That’s where the true person lives.  That is where you will find the person you are supposed to be.  That’s who you are.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

This week we will observe a national holiday we call Thanksgiving.  Now to some people, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday and to others it is firmly rooted in a special relationship we have with a living God.  I am a believer in the latter.  Thanksgiving is a special time of the year when we take a moment to say, “Thank you, Lord.”  It is a time of year when we look at our blessings and we pause to thank God for the wonders of His great love for us and for the riches that He pours onto us daily.

Psalm 100 is a short book in the bible of only five verses.  It is a Psalm of Thanksgiving.  We are urged make a joyful shout to the Lord (verse 1), then to serve the Lord with gladness (verse 2).  We are reminded that God made us—we didn’t make ourselves, and we are his people and the sheep of His pasture (verse 3).  Then we are urged to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise (verses 4 and 5).  Be thankful to Him and to bless His holy name.

So, I will look at Thanksgiving the way God asks us to see Him—to give thanks with a grateful heart,  giving what is due to Whom it is due.  I imagine the early settlers in America had some hard times those first years, so they created this day to give thanks for all the things that God did that they couldn’t do.  He gave them rain when it was needed; safety when it was needed; healing when the doctor wasn’t there; a harvest when it was needed; shelter when it was needed; help when it was needed; seed when it was needed; protection when it was needed; friends when they were needed; clean water when it was needed; bread when it was needed; clothes when they were needed; Love because it is always needed; and Jesus because He is all that is needed.

Thanksgiving is more than a turkey dinner with all the trimmings that you get to share with family and friends who share your life throughout the year.  Thanksgiving is a spirit of life that says I will give to God all that I should, and I’m going to give Him the one thing too that is all I need to give Him.  Because like Jesus is all that we need, giving God your life and your grateful thanks is all that you can give Him that He hasn’t already given you.

So, marry gratefulness with thankfulness and go to Him to give Him thanks because of all that He has done for us.  Be grateful for it all because He didn’t have to do anything for us.  Thank You Lord; I am grateful to be one of your people to dwell as a sheep in your pasture.  You didn’t have to do it for me, but You did.  I thank You for that and I am grateful for what it all means to me.

Once while Jesus was teaching, someone in the crowd said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Luke 12:13)   Jesus responded by saying He wasn’t there to be a judge over our desires between one another.  Then Jesus said to others around that they should all be aware of having a spirit of covetousness, of wanting more things.  Life does not consist of the abundance of what we have, Jesus said.  How many of us need this advice?  So many of us live as if our lives depend on getting every penny we are due from others, even if it’s the last penny they have.  Afterall, it’s rightfully ours, and it belongs in our own abundance.  We demand it.  But should we?

Scripture says that Jesus will ultimately judge our lives and not our abundance.  Roman’s 2:5-6 says, “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment of God, who will give to each one according to his deeds.”  We must understand that the hard work we do to get what is rightfully ours is at the same time self-centered work that God pays us very little for.  If we want what is rightfully due to us from man, God will be obliged to give us what is rightfully His to give us for the work of selflessness we do for Him.

Look at the work you do with your life as it relates to others.  If you want to know the extent of the wages you will be due from God, answer these questions:

• Do I do what man’s law permits me to do, or do I do what the goodness of God will reward?  You will add or withdraw from your account with God by the way you respond.
• Do I do what is right for me to do, or do I do what is good in sight of God?  You will add or withdraw from your account with God by the way you respond.
• Do I forgive others, or do I punish others for needing my forgiveness?  Yes, you will add or withdraw from your account with God by the way you respond.
• Do I treasure what I have, or do I give what God will treasure?  Once again you are adding or withdrawing from your account with God by the way you respond.
• Do others make me to have a soft heart towards them, or do they make me harden my heart because of them?  You account with God is going to be smaller or larger by the way you respond.

Let me encourage you to live your life in such a way that your earthly account is rich with the things that are of value to the Lord.  It is then that both your account here on earth and your eternal account with God will be at their fullest.  When you lay your eyes on yourself, you are taking your eyes off the work that matters most to God.  Learn to forgive people the things they owe you, learn to pour into people the things they need from you, and learn to store up things that are of value to man and to God.  In these ways you will be certain that when payday comes, you will receive better good for the little good you do, you will receive greater forgiveness for the little forgiveness you give, you will receive more patience for the little patience you gave, and you will receive perfect Love for the little love that you loved.  If you want to get all that you are due, make certain you are sowing things that that God will give back to you.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

There is a scripture in the book of Jeremiah that speaks to a bird called a partridge.  A partridge will lay its eggs in a small hole in the sand and then sit on them.  However, partridges are very skittish, fearful birds.  If they are startled by the least little thing, they will flee and abandon their eggs to save their own lives.  A partridge may steal the eggs of other birds and attempt to hatch them, but fear will drive them away from those eggs also.  Fear is a dreadful thing.  Whether real or unfounded, fear can drive us away from where we should be.  Fear is a real thing that is an unreal thing.  We are fearful when we replace what is real with something unreal, something that is in some ways more comfortable to us.  Fear happens most when we feel like we do not have what we want and when we do not understand what we have.

Believers must remember that we always have more than enough of any real thing that we may want or need.  That is because we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Psalms 16:5 says, “Or Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot.”  This passage is a little difficult to comprehend, but here is what I understand.  The Lord provides all that we need for life.  He controls our destinies and how all things will unfold for us.  But this is only if we believe and do not try to take control of our lives ourselves.  He is indeed more than enough for us, more than enough of anything we might need to live a good life here with Him.

We must remain faithful to believe and to trust in Him for our all.  If we turn from the Lord to seek after our own things our own ways, then in some ways we are saying we do not have enough.  But as believers we always have more than enough.  We simply need to believe and to remember that:

• God will keep us when we put our trust in Him.  We should not trust our ways, for our ways are not His ways. (Psalm 16:1)
• We can have nothing good that is apart from the Lord.  If He doesn’t provide the good in our life, then what we think is good is no good at all.  (Psalm 16:2)
• The crooked places of our lives, the high places of our lives, the low places of our lives, the curves in our lives, and all things that would challenge us will be straightened by Him because He provides a good inheritance for us here. (Psalm 16:6)
• Jesus has the Words of life that give us life.  Though life may sometime seem tough to live, we must stay with Him and not turn away for He is more than enough for us to get through all that is before us.  (John 6:67-68)

Remember that you are never enough to achieve enough for yourself.  Set yourself behind the Lord, and He will go before you, making the way straight for you.  He is at your right hand if you will not remove yourself from His presence.  He will never leave you so alone that you are alone.  He will always show you the Way for your life so that you do not follow a path of your own thinking.  When we come to know that we have more than enough in Him, we will know that in His presence we are full of joy and have all that we need.  We will have no fear for anything at anything.  At His right hand are good pleasures forevermore for all believers.  Have no fear for He is indeed more than enough for us.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I generally observe three types of people around us.  Those who spend a new day trying to do more of what they did yesterday.  Those who spend a new day trying to have more of what they had yesterday.  And those who spend a new day trying to be more than they were yesterday.  I have been each of these people.  I didn’t want my old self or my old ways to become old. I loved who I was more than I could see how I should love who I could be tomorrow.  I imagine there are lots more like I was.  Yes, I say who I was. We can spend our lifetimes trying to make new days just like the old days because we won’t change our old selves or our old ways.  That is not who I am today.  I have learned that a new day is a new day.  I tell people now that if they are the same person today that they were yesterday, they should go back to sleep and wait for a new person to wake up.

We should have this mindset about us.  We should all want to be better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than we are going to be today.  We are not blessed just so that we can stay the same as we are.  God’s blessings are designed to make us want to be more unlike who we are and more like who He wants us to be.  But we find this hard to understand so it is even harder to do.  We want His blessings, but we do not want to change who we are.  Then the world tells us we can come to Jesus just as we are and that is true.  But we should stay with Him, dwell with Him, and live with Him just as He wants us to be.  But we make it so hard to do.  I was one who wanted all that it meant to live with Him, but that really did not mean I was ready to do all that it meant to have that. 

Scripture encourages us in the Lamentations 3:21-23.  It says “My soul still remembers and sinks within me.  This I recall to my mind; Therefore I have hope.  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”  Through the Lord’s mercies we could be and perhaps we should be, but we are not consumed.  Through His mercies we make it through each new day.  It doesn’t matter if your day was good or bad, it is through His mercy that you made it through.  Be grateful.  Remind yourself that you couldn’t have gotten through today to your tomorrow save for the wonders of His mercies today.

Now, when I find myself trying to live today the way I did yesterday, I am reminded in my soul that His mercies are new every day, and they are new because He wants me to be new every day.  So, I say to myself, don’t let the old me have a say in the new day that is meant for a new me.  When I find myself trying to live today to have more of what I had yesterday, I am reminded in my soul that His mercies are poured out to give me something new today that I didn’t have yesterday.  He doesn’t just brush off the old stuff and present it as new stuff to us.  He gives new stuff because His mercies are new each day.  And now when I find myself living today trying to be more of who I was yesterday, I am reminded in my soul that His mercies are poured into me today to make me be someone better than I wasn’t yesterday.  A new day; a new me; and a new way!

His compassions indeed never fail, nor does He ever run short of His mercies.  Knowing this should help us learn to run short of trying to have what we had yesterday, to run short of trying to do what we did yesterday, and to run short of trying to be who we were yesterday.  If we would give up all the old stuff about us, He would bless us with New Days full of New Stuff and New Ways that He has reserved for the New Lives in us that He loves daily.  Will the New Day see a New You?  I pray that it will.  Life Delivered.  Love you.