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Sometimes, in our immaturity, we may ask ourselves where is God?  When things are tough for us day after day, when bad stuff happens more and more often, we may wonder where is God?  Why does it feel like sometimes we are alone in a world that is bent on doing evil all the time.

I say we are immature because in asking where God is we are also saying that perhaps God must be present before He can do anything for us.  We may think that God must be with us physically to see what we are going through.  But this is not so.

Psalm 42:1 says something similar this way.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  God’s answer to this is simple.  You are never alone.

The believer must never forget that their belief and their faith is what makes it possible for them to know they are never alone from God.  Sometimes our struggles will make us forget that God is everywhere.   He is omnipresent.  That means He is where you are, where you were, and where you will be all the time.

When Adam and Eve hid themselves from the Presence of God in the garden after their sin of disobedience, they thought they could be someplace God could not find.  They were wrong.  God was the very Garden in which they tried to hide themselves.  They were never alone.

God never plays the game of hide and seek with us.  We are never alone, and God is never absent from the place we are at the present.  If we seek Him, we will find Him.  It’s not hide and seek with Him but seek and find.  We find Him because we are never alone from Him.

There will be times our very persons will thirst for the Living God because life can be tough.  We may feel like we are all alone because all we see is the stuff that wants to make our lives miserable.  But we are never alone.

We ask ourselves where is the place we must go so we can meet up with the Lord? Our struggles we think, keep us from getting to Him.  What is keeping our prayers from reaching Him we ask?  “Nothing,” is His response.  We are never alone.

And people, yes people, like the friends of Job, will even mock us, asking, “Where is your God now?  Where is He in all this stuff?”  They will make us feel we are alone, telling us we are wrong.  They say, “Just accept it, and do what practical people do to fix things.”  They are wrong; we are never alone.

When the winds of struggle are all around you and about to sink you, remember that God is there, and He is not asleep in your boat.  You are never alone.

In your struggles, He is the one place you can find peace.  You are not alone.

When you do what surprises even yourself, you are not alone.  He never leaves you alone simply with your thoughts.

You are never alone.  The world wants you to be so preoccupied with your struggles that you will forget this.  People want to belittle you so much that you will forget you are bigger in Him.  You are never alone.  You can not go anyplace from the presence of God.

You cannot go anyplace from the power of God.  You cannot go anyplace from the Love of God.  Darkness cannot hide you from Him nor can the depths of despair keep Him from you.

So, remember today, you are never alone.  Remind yourself of this daily, moment by moment.  He created you and He knows you.  No matter what you are facing today, remember you are in His presence, no matter how you may feel.

And if you know you are in His presence, you can know that He knows what you are facing and is ready to show you a way to live more freely in the light of darkness because He isn’t just with you to watch what happens with you.

He is with you so that you can learn to watch what He can do with you.  You are never alone.  Don’t give up on knowing that.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

I’m sure some of you it said, “Don’t just bring problems to the surface; bring also solutions.”  There are many ways we can look at this statement.  It is fitting for many of us who look only for problems in life or to find those things others are doing wrong.  You know what I mean.  Those of us who have a critical or condemning spirit would love to show us everything about everyone else that is wrong.

In a way, Jesus had to deal with this in some of His disciples.  In Matthew 9:13 He tells them, “You give them something to eat.”  He did this after the disciples came to Him telling Him to send the people away before dark so they could find food for themselves.

Jesus responded by saying, “Why don’t you do something?”  They responded by telling Him they only had a few loaves of bread and two fish among them. This was not enough, they thought, to feed five thousand people.  Still, Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”  He did not say give them give them a five-course dinner, but He wanted the people to eat something.

The disciples were looking at the size of the problem and considered a big problem needed an even bigger way to solve it.  In their minds sending the people to the towns around them was the best way to ensure they could get something to eat.  Or was it really?

Sometimes we are like this today.  Sometimes we are too busy to be bothered with the problems of others.  Something we are too privileged to let problems people cause for themselves become our problems.  Sometimes we think, “You caused it; you fix it.”  We find ways to do nothing except point out blame or fault.

When we see our neighbor’s child hungry, do we feed them, or do we criticize the parents for being poor parents?  Do we pray, “Lord, fix those worthless parents”, or do we feed the child?  Do we see the child’s hunger, or do we see our pride?  Do we see the parents’ faults, or do we see our hard hearts?

We should be grateful our Lord is not like we are.  Jesus was saying to the disciples, “If you do something with what you have, then I will do what you cannot do.”  You do something.  When a person is down to their last, Jesus is wondering if we will be willing to give up our last for them?  Are we?

Jesus challenges us with the problems we are blessed to see.  He wants to see us do something for others from what we have and from what we do not have.  He wants to hear us say, “Lord I have done this, and I have done that, but we still have this problem for these people.  Please help us.”

Jesus took the little food the disciples had and fed over five thousand people from it.  Many of us think He fed them with it, but He fed them from it.  With it would mean each person got a tiny crumb of the five loaves and of the two fishes.

But Jesus doesn’t feed us our needs from our lack.  He fulfills our needs by using our lack.  By using five loaves and two fishes, He was able to multiply that into what was sufficient for everyone to be fed to the full.  When you do something, He will what you do and multiply that in ways to completely satisfy the problems you face.

Our role in all this is to do something.  When we see a need, let’s be willing to do something by giving all that we can so that when we go to the Lord, He is able to do something more from what we have done.  Don’t wait for Him to tell you to do something.  Do something.  Then tell Him in your prayers for others what you have done.

When you do something, He will work from what you have done to do what cannot be done.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Genesis 31 tells of Jacob with his family leaving Laban to return to his home.  The account says Jacob left without informing Laban because he was afraid of how Laban would respond.  In Genesis 31:24, Laban was about to go and overtake Jacob.  Scripture says God did not stop him, but He warned him.

It says, “But God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him.  Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”  In other words, God was saying to Laban, be careful not to act in anger when you catch up with Jacob.  I won’t like that, and you won’t like that I won’t like it.  I am no idol.

In Genesis 31:30 Laban says, “And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”  The gods Laban is talking about were the household idols that belonged to Laban.

Laban was angry because he thought Jacob had taken the things that he worshipped.  We could call them his idols, we could call them his gods, or we could call them the things he worshipped.  However we choose to refer to them, Laban didn’t have the sense to realize that the God who spoke to him in a dream is the only true God.

Listen, the gods we create are not the same as the God who created us.  In fact, I will say that we shouldn’t even refer to the things we create as gods at all.  There is only one God though there may be many things we hold as idols.  But we must be careful never to idolize anything in the way we should hold our God.

Laban was chasing after something to which he gave his intentional praise and adoration.  He was chasing after something he had given a special position in his life.  We must never give to anything the things that we should only give to God.  We must never hold anything in a position in our lives that should only be occupied by God.

I don’t believe it’s wrong by itself to have love for things.  But we should remember this.  Things are things.  We shouldn’t love things like we love God.  Things are things.  If God is not at the top of your life, then nothing else should be there. We should have nothing higher than God.

The gods Laban created came from his thoughts and his mind.  They were not the same as the one true God.  The gods we create are not the same as our God. 

Laban had many gods; our God is one.  He has us, or we are lost.

Laban’s gods could not speak or hear; our God speaks to us, and He listens to us.

Laban’s gods could not keep themselves from being stolen; our God keeps us from being stolen away.

Laban’s gods could exist only in the place he placed them; our God exists in everyplace and in anyplace.

Laban’s gods could not prevent themselves from being moved; our God lives everywhere and moves anywhere as He pleases.

Laban’s gods could not think or act; our God thinks and acts on our behalf always.

Laban’s gods were created by Laban; our God has always existed, and He created us.

Laban’s gods were powerless; our God is all power.

The gods we create are not the same as the God who created us.  Let’s make sure that as we live each day we do not intentionally or unintentionally create the idea of something that might take the position that God should occupy in our lives.

Let’s make sure nothing gets the praise and worship that we should only give God.

When we remember they are not the same, we will learn to live on God’s mantel, in God’s house, in God’s mind, and in His heart.  And when He is ready to move, He will move us along with Him.  We will never have to go looking for God when we remember we live in Him more than He lives in our thoughts.

We may lose our idols, but we can never lose our God because we are found by Him, held by Him, given life in Him, and we have life by Him.  He is not the same as anyone or anything else.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

In Matthew Chapter 11 we have one of Jesus’ most impactful messages on gratefulness and thanksgiving.  Here He teaches us about the power of John the Baptist’s message and how the privileged leaders of the time were ungrateful and unwilling to change.

In Matthew 11:25, Jesus prays this prayer of Thanksgiving.  He says, “I thank You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.”  The things He speaks of were the things of the salvation we all need.

The elite people of the time did not appreciate the truth and significance of John’s message.  The status and provisions they had kept them from seeing what they needed most.  But the people who had little were thankful for how much John’s message meant for them.

So, here we are today, Thanksgiving 2023.  Will we find in ourselves the heart of gratefulness and thankfulness Jesus had for Who God is and for what He means to us?  Jesus is the Son of God, yet He had the sense to recognize the need for the work of God in a world where man wants his own work to be dominate.

So, as you get your Thanksgiving Day started for 2023, do so by first thanking the Lord for thanking God for being our God.  Yes, I said thank the Lord for thanking God.

Be thankful today because Jesus was grateful that our God lives to serve all our needs.  He was grateful on our behalf.

Acknowledge someone today who is like a John the Baptist of our time.  Just as Jesus took the time to acknowledge the importance of John and the impact his work had on the people of the times, let’s be thankful for the people who still go forth proclaiming the salvation of the Lord.  We need that!

Jesus enjoys the close relationship He has with each of us, and He loves spending time with us.  So, you ought to enjoy the day and the food and the fellowship you will have with Him and with those close to you.  

And keep the day in perspective.  More than being thankful for what we have, be thankful that God has chosen to make us a part of His plans.

Start the Day with prayer like Jesus:

I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You are:

The God of all people – and God of our life.

That You live for us so that we may live in You.

That You are all our provision so that we need not to worry about what we may lack.

That You love loving each of us and in doing so we will learn to love You and to love others.

That You speak to us like the babes of Your heart, so that we can learn to come to You and learn to live by what You will reveal to us.

Thanksgiving 2023 is indeed a day for us to learn to live humbly before God and others, but to live richly in the provisions of His blessings and in His mercies and in His Love.

As much as we are thankful for the food and the day away from work we have today, let’s be thankful that God is our God.

We cannot count all our blessings, but we can count on being blessed all the time because He is our Father.  Let’s give Him all our Thanksgiving for that.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I have some questions for you. Have you ever wondered why it can be difficult sometimes to have a simple conversation with someone? Have you known anyone who will argue every point you make so that you listen to the points they want to make?  Have you ever known someone who will reject the facts and the truth for what they would rather believe?

Well, if you have lived longer than a year, I am sure you have come across someone like this.  They seem like the most difficult people to talk with.  I can hear myself saying these people, “You cannot tell them anything.”  Now, I don’t mean you cannot talk with them, I simply mean you cannot reason with them.

But we must reason with them.  And we must do that by trying to get them to see themselves more than by trying to make a point with them.  You must do this because people like this have hardened their hearts; they have dulled their eyes and they have closed their ears to feeling, seeing, or hearing most things that are clear to others.

In Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus speaks of these type people when He explains why He speaks in parables.  Scripture says this.  “Therefore, I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  For the hearts of these people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.”

Stubborn!  That is my word for people like this.  I believe people like this are fearful of change because they have learned to be comfortable just as they are.  Jesus is of course different from me.  He doesn’t use simple words for these people.  He describes people like this by speaking to their hearts, their ears, and their eyes.

Sometimes we don’t hear anything contrary to what we want to hear.  Our ears may hear what is spoken but we may quickly reject what we hear so that we can speak what we want to hear.  As Jesus says, we may hear, but we do not understand.

Sometimes we don’t see what is contrary to what we want to see.  Our eyes may see what is before us, but we tell ourselves we want to see something different.  So, we cannot see what is real, only what we want to be real.  As Jesus says, we may see, but we are not able to perceive what is real.

Sometimes we don’t feel what is contrary to what we feel.  Our hearts may sense what is before us, but we tell ourselves we don’t want to feel that way.  Instead, we want to feel the way that makes us comfortable.  As Jesus says, we may feel, but we are not able to experience the right feeling.

As believers we must see, hear, and feel that life is not going to be easy for us.  We do not have to come to live hardened lives because things in life are hard for us.  We must learn never to harden how we live when we are faced with some hard things.

Instead, let’s learn to soften ourselves as we live in the most difficult of times.  A soft answer turns away wrath.  The harder we make life for ourselves, the harder life will be for us.  Anyone can be your enemy if you treat them like they are an enemy.  Let’s learn to respond to hard things with better things.

Jesus did that for us when He died for us, and He does this for us daily as He lives for us.  Let’s learn to live a soft life in the middle of the hardest things in life.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, we have the account of Paul and his “thorn in the flesh.”  Paul was sharing a message about his conversion and the privilege he had to be used for the Lord’s purposes.  The thorn was a way to keep him from thinking more highly of himself than anyone else.

The thorn kept Paul from being proud—and a few other things.  The scripture says Paul asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn from his body.  Whatever it was, the thorn bothered Paul so much that he asked the Lord to remove it. 

According to Paul, “And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)  In short, Jesus said to Paul, “No. ”  The Lord refused to remove Paul’s thorn.  I don’t know about you, but when I go to the Lord asking for something, I am always looking for Him to say, “Yes.”

What should be our response when the Lord says no to us?  Well, there are several things the Lord taught us in how He responded to Paul.

First, we need to understand that we cannot live our lives without the presence and the active play of grace.  Not all of life will be easy going for us.  Not all of life will be full of good for us. We need the grace of the Lord to get through life in the way we should.

Whether difficult or easy, whether good or bad, we need the grace of the Lord to learn how to live with it all.  Grace helps us to learn to face each day with humility and with the understanding that we need the favor of the Lord to get through our tough times and our good times so that we do not come to rely on our own strength.

Jesus also taught us that our strength is just enough to keep us in our weaknesses.  How is this so?  Because our strength is imperfect.  It can only help us deal with something weaker than we are.  Life will throw at us many things that are greater than our strength.  The Lord wants us to understand we need more than our own grit and determination to live free.

Finally, Jesus taught us that weaknesses and challenges are a natural part of life.  Some of us may have more than others, but we all have our weaknesses, and we all have our challenges.  Jesus says to us that His strength, which works in us in the form of His grace, is perfected in our weaknesses.

So, there are times when we ought to ask for more grace than more freedom because the more grace we have the stronger and more overcoming we become.  We should ask for more patience than more freedom.  The more patient we are the more understanding we become.  And we should ask to be more forgiving, and we should ask for more forgiveness than more freedom from the need to forgive.  The more we forgive the more blessed we are.  

If you are being pressed on all sides today to give more at work than what you believe you should receive, give more!  More grace will be poured into you and in your humility, you will be strengthened beyond the thing that is stronger.

Paul said he would rather boast in his infirmities so that the power of Christ might rest upon him.   I am not so strong that I will boast about the things that challenge me, but I will do this.  Knowing that sometimes the Lord will say no to my requests, I will look for the strength of His grace and His presence in all that I face.

I will do that because when He says no, I am reminded that when I am weakened by anything, I am strengthened by Him.

So, when He says no to you, perhaps it’s because your grace tank is almost empty or your humility tank is almost empty, or your thankfulness tank is almost empty.  Whatever it is, be grateful that when He says no, He always has something better to offer that we didn’t ask for.  He fills your tanks with something powerful!

When He says no, you can be sure He offers a way for you to be made stronger in and with whatever is your challenge.  He may not remove your challenge, but He will always make a way for you to move on in strength and in power with your challenge in tow.

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

The Lord always has a standard for our behavior that is higher than anything we could have thought.  I sometimes find it amazing. Actually, if I am totally open with you, there are many times I’d rather just simply follow the law of things than follow the heart of what Jesus wants.

In the book of Matthew, chapter 5, we find multiple times where Jesus uses this statement as He teaches.  He says, “You have heard that it was said of those of old.”  Then He follows those statements with these words “but I say to you.”

For example, Matthew 5:43 says, “You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

When I hear that I wonder if the Lord really means what He says to us.  I ask, “Lord, You say that You want us to love our enemies and to bless the people who curse us and to do good to those who hate us.  Is this what you really mean for us to do, Lord?”

Every time I ask this question, He says, “Yes, I really mean it.”  His silence tells me that He wants what is best and what is good for everyone, not just for me.  He really means that.

People can be the opposite of that, especially those among us who may have some authority.  Many will want us to follow the law, the rules, and the norms that they make. We end up serving the ways of man more than we serve the heart of God.

The Lord has a way of taking us beyond merely following the rules we make. He takes us to the place where we become the spirit of what of what no rule can make us.  But to do this He knows that we must become very mindful of listening to the things we have heard others say.

Others want us to live under the idea of rules, norms, and laws because we cannot live together without these.  But Jesus wants us to learn to live happily with rules, norms, and laws because we live happily in Him.

He really means it when He says to love our enemies.  It makes our enemies more friendly towards us.

He also really means it when He says that if you are angry with anyone you are in danger of His judgment  (Matthew 5:22). Anger develops when love is absent.

Again, He really means it when He says never to swear but just let your yes be your yes (Matthew 5:33-37).  He wants us to be people of our words.

Here is what Jesus is saying:

• What good is it for us that we follow the law, but we still have hate in our hearts?  How can we love when we hate?

• What good is it for us if we follow the law, but we still detest the law?  How can we follow what we do not like?

• What good is it for us if we do what we have heard others say its okay to do, but we miss out on being who He says we should be?  How can we really serve Him when we serve our own desires?

Does He really mean what He says?  Well, the simple answer is yes, He does.  We should never question that.  What we should question is why on earth would we want to live according to what we have heard others say is ok to do.

The Lord wants us to live before others in a way that makes them wonder about who we listen to.  When we learn to live happily above the things that would make us more like them, it will make them wonder if we really mean it.

Learn to listen more to Him than you do to them, and when He tells you something hard to believe, just remember, yes, He really means it.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Sometimes, I can get so fixed on what I want that I cannot see what I really need.  You know how that is.  We may want a better job, but we cannot see that we need to have better attitudes.  Sometimes we cannot see what is possible because our eyes are so focused on what seems to be impossible.

When we open our eyes, we expect to see what is before us.  The eyes work like that.  But sometimes we are not able to see the Lord’s work because we do not look for the thing that should never happen, something like a bush that burns but is not consumed (Exodus 3:1-3).

I have found that my natural eyesight was often the reason I didn’t have any spiritual insight.  In a way, I was spiritually blind.  I’m not saying that today I see perfectly well spiritually, but then I didn’t see much of anything at all spiritually because I depended on my natural sight.

To see more of what is happening around us we must open more than just our eyes.  We must open our lives to see the spiritual things that cannot be easily explained in the natural.  Our natural sight cannot do this for us.

But how do we do this?  How do we see what we cannot see?  How do we see what cannot be explained?  And if our eyes will see what is before us, how can they see what is hidden from us?  Well, the answer is simple.  Only the Lord can open your spiritual sight for you.

Not many people would see a railroad when looking at the pony express.  But one person did.  He saw what was possible from what was before them.  So, it is with us today.  The Lord wants us to learn to see and to have what is impossible from the things that are happening right now with us.  One of the ways He gets us to open our spiritual sights is to ask questions of us.

I imagine many of you are like me.  I pray and I ask the Lord for many things.  I sometimes even ask Him questions about the things I do not understand.  But one of the surest ways you can have your spiritual eyes opened happens when the Lord asks you a question.

In 1 Kings 19:13-14, the Prophet Elijah was tired from having a bad run of things.  His spiritual sight had been blinded by what he saw with his carnal eyes.  He had fought and killed many of the false prophets serving other gods and now the one remaining prophet was out to kill him.

Scripture says God found Elijah sitting under a juniper tree all by himself.  When seeing this God asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Elijah explained to God what God already knew.

God is patient and loving with us.  He uses many ways to teach us to use our spiritual sight more. So, He will ask questions of us that He already knows the answers.

He asked Moses what did he have in his hand?  Exodus 4:2

He asked Paul why are you persecuting me?  Acts 9:4

He asked Adam where are you?  Genesis 3:9

So, take a moment and ask the Lord to help you make sure you are seeing with your spiritual eyes.  Has God ever asked you a question?  If He has, it may be because He is trying to teach you to learn to live more by your spiritual sight than by your natural eyes.

Pray always.  The scripture tells us to do that.  Many of us will ask the Lord to tell us what He wants us to do.  That is good.  But through your prayers learn also to listen for the times the Lord has a question of you.  These will be the times He will open your eyes to see more of what you are missing.

Cain, after he killed Abel, was saddened, not because he had just killed his brother but because he was jealous of the position Abel had with God.  God asked Cain “why has your countenance fallen?”  When God asks you a question, He will always ask what should be asked instead of what you want Him to ask.

It is a sign of a special moment when the Lord asks you a question.  Be ready for that time when it comes.  He asked other people questions like these:

A man at the pool He asked, “Do you want to be healed?”  John 5:6

A woman with an issue of blood He asked, “Who touched me?”  Luke 8:45-46

Peter He asked, “Do you love Me?”  John 21:16

His own disciples He asked,  “How much bread have you?”  Matthew 15:34-39

I believe He has a question for you.  Ask Him what that might be.  And when He does, be mindful He is looking for you to respond with your spiritual life more than your natural life.  Be ready for what He asks you.

Lord, open their spiritual eyes that they may see the army of angels ready to do battle for them in their natural lives so that they can serve you more with their spiritual lives.  It didn’t matter how much bread they had, whatever they had it was enough to do what Jesus wanted to do.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I’m pretty sure many of you have heard the phrase, “You reap what you sow.”  It comes from the scripture in Galatians 6:7 where we are told, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”  If you don’t see yourself as a farmer, you ought to look again.  There is not much in life you can get without first having to give something.

There is no greater example of this than Jesus Himself.  He had to give up His life so He could have your life.  Not much worth having can be had without us first giving something of equal or greater worth.  The most blessed of us understand this principle.  God wants us to understand that we should be intentional about sowing and reaping.

So, why are some people more blessed in what they reap than we are?  Well, it’s because most of us grow up thinking only about what we want to harvest in life.  We give very little thought to what we must sow to produce what we want to reap.  Sowing is boring work and hard work.  But harvesting is the valued work we do for something we want and value.

There are others who think differently.  Instead of thinking of the harvest first, they think more seasonally.  Seasonal thinking causes lets them consider what they should be giving to produce the things they want to harvest.  Seasonal thinking causes them to value what they give so that they will harvest something of value in return.

As believers we should be seasonal thinkers.  Harvesting is a by product of sowing.  You cannot have a harvest without first having sown something.  Believers don’t live out their lives thinking they can harvest from what someone else has planted.

In springtime, we should sow our seeds for the crops we hope to harvest later.  If we want to harvest deep relationships, we must sow into others the things they will value and appreciate from us.  And as we sow, we will nurture and water and fertilize what we want so that that it will produce what we expect.

Summer and fall are the times of our greatest harvest.  But to have that great harvest we must sow into others the seeds or the things that can tolerate the unpredictable changes in the weather.  We don’t sow a spring crop in the dead of summer or that crop will surely die.  There will be no harvest.

Winter is the time of minimal harvest.  But to have any winter harvest at all, the believer must learn to sow a hearty seed, one that can germinate and then grow when the days are short, the light is short, and the temps are low.  

This is seasonal thinking; it is thinking that produces more than thinking of harvests.  I know you all are not farmers.  But you are all alive, and the essence of living is found in what we produce in life to sustain our lives and help to sustain the lives of others around us.  So, learn to think and live more seasonally and chase less after a great harvest.

As a believer, ask yourself this question.  What have you produced in your life?  To answer this question, you will have to consider what things you have sown.  If you have not sown anything of value, you should not expect to reap anything of value.

Let this be the day you start to live a life of sowing.  The more you sow, the more you will reap.  Let this be the day you start sowing in your own field, so you do not look to reap from someone else’s work.

Let this be the day you start living like you are producing something more than you are looking to reap something.

The Lord will honor your life and work when you live this way.  Let this be the day you start to live to give from what you have produced.

Let this be the day you start to think and to live seasonally.  Seasonal thinking is what God blesses more than anything.  A great harvest awaits you when as a believer you think like a farmer and sow the things in life others will value.

Live a Delivered Life.

James 1:19-20 says, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

So then.  What does James mean by these two simple words?  I think he means “because of this.”  But because of what?  Well, he tells us that God brought us forth by the Word of Truth, so that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

So then, or because of this, we should talk a lot less than we do.  We should be quick to hear more than what we allow ourselves to hear.  We should be very slow to be brought to points of wrath or anger that is acted out towards others.  Wrath and anger come to us more easily because we do not want to be quieted.

And why is all this important?  Because the wrath of His first fruits does not produce the righteousness of God.  So then, if we are really the first fruits of His work, we must accept that our work is to be producers of His righteousness more than promoters of our own.

You are a producer of the things that you hear and understand.  God wants us to learn to be quieted so that we can hear more from Him and learn more from Him and understand more about Him.  But why is this so hard for us to do?  Why can’t we keep our mouths shut more and keep our ears, eyes and hearts open more?

I believe it is because we want to be understood more than we want understanding.  We want to teach more than we want to learn.  We want to do our work through God more than we want Him to do His work through us.

Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.”

Doing our work through the Lord is not what it means to be a producer.  A producer is one who lets the work of God work within so that this work produces the righteousness God wants.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so they can gain more understanding.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so that they can hear the unspoken.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so they can learn to respond to God more than to react to man.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so they can learn to speak in the quiet of holding their tongues.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so that by their knowledge they spare their words to a few.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so they show their understanding through a calm spirit.

A producer is someone who can be quieted so that others can see the work of righteousness that God has produced in them.

If you have to say more than you understand, others will see you for your foolishness.  If you cannot learn to be quieted it is likely you have learned to be like one who seeks more to do your own work through God rather than to allow the Lord to produce the fruits of His work in you.

Quiet yourself.  Open your ears.  Open your heart.  Kill the presence of even a little desire to be angry about anything.  Shut your mouth except for when you are eating.  When you do these things, others will see the work of God in you.  They will see you for your wisdom and understanding rather than for your folly.

Learn to be quieted.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.