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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.

The book of Luke tells the story of the woman who had a blood issue for 12 years.  I’ve probably shared something with you about this scripture before.  But today I want to share more because it is more than a story about miracle healing. It is a story of restoration.

Here is what the scripture says in Luke 8:43-48.  “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, ‘Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?’And Jesus said, ‘Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.’”

Twelve years is a long time.  Since this was a woman, we can know that there probably was a time she did not have this sickness.  She knew what it meant to be whole, and she knew what it meant to be sick.  With a blood issue, the woman was probably scorned by others.  She was probably ridiculed by others.  She was probably treated like she was unclean.  Others would not have wanted to be around her, nor would they have wanted her to be around them.  Doctors probably treated her from a distance.

So, after twelve years, she had tried all she could.  She came to Jesus because she knew a pill could not do what she needed to have done.  She wanted to be restored to who she was before her sickness began.  She wanted to belong again.  She wanted to be accepted again.  She wanted to be whole and clean again.  She wanted to be a child again among people again.  She wanted to be restored.

Man had done her more harm than good.  We’ve probably all lived through a time where someone has made a bad situation worse for us.  When we need them to help us with encouragement, they hinder us with criticism.  When we need them to encourage us with support, they discourage us with guilt.  You know what I mean.

I decided to use the King James Version of scripture for this message because of the deep meaning of the words it uses.  Jesus’ Words makes it clear that He knew full well what she had been going through.  In one simple act of Love, He tells everyone around Him that He perceived virtue had gone out from Him.

Jesus didn’t rub her eyes with anything.  He didn’t touch her with His healing hands.  He didn’t ask her to wash herself in the local river.  He sent into her the one thing she needed most, virtue.  Jesus sent to her all the things man kept from her.

Virtue is a sense of the highest standards of good.   It is the highest moral state that can be.  It is the right thing being done in the right way for all the right reasons.  It is the standard of good for all things good.

Something more powerful than healing went out from Jesus to that lady that day.  He restored to her all that man kept from her.  And this is what healed the issue of her blood.

Sometimes, we may find ourselves in similar places of bondage with the people around us.  And no matter what we do, we cannot seem to find a way to escape.  After many years we may feel hopeless because we have unknowingly begun to hope for what we want from the people who are holding us down.

But, like this lady, we must come to the end of our twelve years.  We do this by realizing that all we need is just a little faith in Jesus to do for us what all the hope in man will never do.  We must realize there are times when we need restoration more than we need anything else.

So, let this be the day you realize how a little faith is all that is needed to do in your life what 12 years of hope in man can never do.  If you want the things around you to change, ask the Lord to change some things within you.  Believe that He will meet you with His virtue and you too shall be made whole and restored and loved.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I was reflecting recently on myself and on people in general and why it is that we don’t learn more than we know.  I was astonished to find that what keeps me from learning is often the things I have already learned.  What I have come to know gives me some sense of assurance and status and a sense of pride.  I like that.  But having this keeps me from wanting to learn more.

In Matthew 13:10-17, Jesus explains to His disciples why some people do not learn by explaining to them why He taught everyone in parables.  The scripture says this in Matthew 13:10-11.  “And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’  He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’”

The “them” He is talking about was the Jewish leaders.  The disciples understood that the leaders did not understand what Jesus was saying because what they knew is what gave them power and authority.  They could not learn more because they thought they had learned all they needed.  We cannot understand more when we are unwilling to learn more.

Jesus’ response to them is even difficult to understand.  By telling the disciples it was given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven He was saying this to them: Because you have hearts to want to know and to learn, your hearts desire has been given to you, even to understanding the deep things of God and of heaven.

But the Jewish leaders did not have hearts to want to learn.  What they knew made them more than the people who lived at that time. Their hearts were hardened by the very things they had learned.  They could not understand what Jesus was saying because they spent all their time trying to get Him to understand what they knew.  They were not willing to allow what they knew to be challenged by what they did not know.

I’m ashamed to say I have found some of the Jewish leader’s heart in me sometimes.  In times past, I could get so fixed on the one thing I knew that it would keep my heart shut from learning more and better things.  I had to learn to overcome this attitude and nature.

I know now that we should all feel blessed by the things God reveals to us in His Word.  But we should also feel fearful in some ways because there is more to know and to learn that we do not know.  I was brought to a good place of fear because I understood I knew a little but there was much more to know.

Proverbs 1:5 came to life in me, and it should live big in you.  It says, “A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wish counsel.”  A wise person is simply someone who has the sense to pay attention to what is happening around them, to learn from things and to keep learning of the things that could be.

Being wise doesn’t mean we are smarter than anyone else.  It simply means we are prudent about what we know, and we seek to know what is not known or is what is hard to know.  Being wise means we learn as much from what has yet to happen as we do from what happened yesterday.

We cannot know the Lord the way we should if by what we know we limit ourselves to the legality of it all.  If what you know is of any real value, then the wise will never harden their hearts to stop learning and knowing.  The wise and prudent will allow what they know to be challenged because they fear missing out on something they could know but miss.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  But fools despise wisdom and instruction.  People with hardened hearts despise learning more and they reject more instruction.  Let’s pray that this is not who we are.   Let’s learn to use what keeps us from learning as a way to help us grow in what we know and in how we learn.

If we stop learning and understanding more of what we do not know, we will miss the Lord when He visits us in ways we have not learned before.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Psalm 25 is a plea we should all have for deliverance and forgiveness.  Deliverance from the snares of ourselves.  And forgiveness because we are so focused on ourselves that we fail to see who we really are.  I have come face to face with a person inside of me telling me I could be better.  But times before I didn’t want to hear that.  I liked being who I was.

Psalm 25:4-5 encourages us in this way.  It says, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I will wait all day.”  David is saying, show me Lord, and I will change and follow what You reveal.

I wish I had the faith of David.  Often the Lord will show me things, and often I will choose to follow my ways instead of what He shows me.

If I wish to have the faith of David, I must be willing to change from my ways to ways I do not know.  So, this is what I have learned.  I don’t want to read scripture so that I can simply be informed and aware of what God says.  I need to be transformed by scripture.  I go to scripture not just to read but to be read.

In Job 34:32, there is a little word that says, “Teach me what I do not see; If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.”  I am no longer satisfied simply by reading the scripture through my own eyes.  My eyes may never be clear enough to see what I do not see.  I have too many shortcomings and too many desires of my own that keep me from seeing His ways.

So, I now say, take my hands Lord and show me what I am missing that is right before me.  Instead of me reading scripture, let me now come to scripture and to Your Word so that it can read my life.  Show me my ways Lord and show me where I need to be transformed.

When Your Word looks for forgiveness in me and finds none, please show me my ways and teach me how to change.

When Your Word looks for grace and mercy in me and finds neither, please show me my ways and teach me how to change.

When Your Word looks for Love and understanding in me and finds neither, please show me my ways and teach me how to change.

I am grateful that I learned to turn things around.  The old me has always wanted to read God’s Word and to apply it to my life.  The new me wants to have God’s Word read me and to transform my life from what it is into what it is reading.

David learned this.  Psalm 25 isn’t just a cry for more of God, it is a cry for the Lord to deliver us from the bondage of being ourselves.  David understood this.  He knew that He could not rightly serve the Lord if he were not delivered from living his ways.  We should want this for ourselves.

So, today I ask the Lord to show each of us our ways so that we will be moved to change from the ways of our own to the Ways that He chooses.  If you can be delivered from yourself, it is probably possible that you can be delivered to Him in His ways.

Ask the Lord today to show you your ways and be ready to be transformed from your thoughts to His, from your actions to His, from your views to His, and from your life to His.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

John 13:6-9 tells of the time when Jesus washed the disciple’s feet.  The scripture says when He got to Peter, Peter said to Him, “Lord Thou shall never wash my feet.”  Peter didn’t understand what the Lord was doing.  He wanted the Lord to know things were backwards.  Peter thought he should be the one washing the Lord’s feet.

The Lord told Peter that he would understand fully what was happening sometime in the future.  Things just didn’t make sense to Peter.  Why was the Lord Himself washing their feet?  Today, we have enough things that don’t make sense to us.  It is a big thing when the Lord asks us to do something, and we can’t make sense of it either.

Peter had a habit of not making sense of what the Lord was asking him.  Once, when Peter and his friends were fishing, Jesus got into Peter’s boat and taught the people who were on the shore of the sea of Galilee.  Luke 5:4-5 says, “Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.’”

Peter responded by telling the Lord they had fished all night and caught nothing.  “But since You asked,” Peter said, “I will do it.” Peter was saying, “Lord, I just want You to know the fish are not biting today.”  Well, Peter and his friends caught more fish than they could handle.  Their nets were full to the point of breaking.

Peter was a fisherman by trade.  He had probably been trained by his father and learned much from his own experiences. Nevertheless, after fishing all night using all his skills, he had caught nothing.  We are much like Peter today.  We must learn to stop using our skills to limit what the Lord can do with our obedience.

If you want to experience the fullness of life that God promises, you must learn to live each day in response to His word more than by your skills and experiences.  I am sure we have, at one time or another, started something we couldn’t finish the way we’d like.  We have gotten ourselves into some things we later needed help in getting out of.

Sometimes our skills and experiences will let us get into some things, but those same skills and experiences cannot free us from those things.  Jesus told Simon launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch.  We must learn that with the Lord we will always be asked to launch out far and deep from our own experiences and skills if we are to experience His power.

Peter, after having failed on his own, took Jesus at His word.  Many of us live powerless lives today as Believers because we try things first on our own instead of taking Christ at His word.  God does not fail at anything He starts.  So, when His word says to us to launch your life out into the deep, you must say, “Yes Lord, I will.”

We must get away from the shallow comforts of life where we can control all things ourselves.  It is in the deeps of life where our faith, our dependence, and our service to God and others are founded and strengthened.

The Lord may ask you to stand in the shallows and do His work.  That would make sense if you didn’t have a boat to go deeper.  But the people He wants to help through you may be out a little deeper in the water.  To help them, you must be willing to leave the comforts of the shallows and depend on Him to get you through the deep things of life.

With the Lord, we are never in over our heads with anything.  So, praise Him today, and ask Him to help you to be ready to launch your life wherever He wants you to live.  It may not make sense to you now, but in time it will.

The Lord shares enough for us at the time to see if we can be obedient to the things we understand, we should also be obedient to the things we do not understand.  If it comes from God, it makes sense to obey what we do not understand.  In doing that, He helps us make a great catch while others just toil in their own efforts.

To the believer, that makes all the sense in the world.

Lived A Delivered Life.  Love you.