Am I willing?[2 Chronicles 28 v 9 ]

Yesterday I mentioned about people with deep seated problems, now what is the key to overcoming these ?, willingness.Consider what that means, you see there are mulitudes of people, who know the dangers of smoking ,but they are not willing to give up, the will is mans fortress. When that begins to crumble then things can begin to change, but only then,there will be no change,until the there is a willingness to change.People say I cant change ,but the more important question is am I willing to change?,no one can answer that for them,one can reason with a person till one is blue in the face, but until there is a willingness to change ,things will remain the same. So if you have deep seated problems ask yourself, are you willing to change?for you the problems will not go away until you are willing to change. Now of course this is only part of the answer,but it is the most important part, we will move on tomorrow to consider,what next ?. [Dear God help us to be willing to change,in Jesus name Amen ]

Deep seeded problems. [ Philippians 1v6 ]

When you are dealing with people with deep seated problems,one thing you must be careful, and its this , not to run with their problem, for this will not help them or you. The problems they have are often deep seated,as I have said, and often they are not willing to deal with them,so they draw you in, often putting the blame on you , for their problems. There is every likelihood that they will cut you of, and move on to someone else, with little thought for you, and no gratitude for what you have done for them. I believe our Lord does not run with our problems, instead He gets us to recognize ,that we have a problem, and take responsiblity for our actions, with His grace and love He can help us. The question is, are we willing to face up to our problems?, to stop running from our problems,stop making excuses,stop the blaming game, to first and foremost to acknowledge to ourselves and to God, our problem, thats the first step,the most important step, tomorrow we may consider this further. [ Dear God help us to start dealing with the problems in our lives in an honest way, not to keep running away, in Jesus name Amen ]

The war is not over yet. [Ephesians 6 v10-18]

William Gurnall in his book ,/The Christian in complete armour/,writes,/ From your spiritual birth to your natural death, from the hour you set your face toward heaven until you set your foot inside the gate,you will have wars with Satan ,sin, and self./Yes dear friends, the Christian life is an ongoing battle , most wars come to an end, some are long like the 100yrs war ,but it came to an end, but if one is a Christian as W Gurnall points out,the war goes on and on.David fell into the trap of letting his guard down and paid the price, we read, it was the time when kings go to war, but David tarried still at Jerusalem.[ 2 Samuel 11v1]. So today, let us be alert, let us be on our guard,let us look to the Lord continually,let us live not, in fear of man,or the devil, but let us be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. [ Dear God help me to on my guard continually,strengthen me by Your Spirit , that I may stand, and having done all to stand, in Jesus name Amen ]

Our thoughts. [Philippians 4 v8 ]

In Matthew 12 v25, we read,/ And Jesus knew their thoughts/, I wonder what you think about those words?,they are very challenging. Maybe we feel uncomfortable with those words,simple because our thoughts are not all they should be. The Bible has a lot to say about thoughts, this is the place where we need to guard ,and to be on our guard,the sin that we commit begins with our thoughts. We can be all sweetness on the outside, but in the inside we can be full of bitterness, it is inevitable that we will think wrong thoughts ,but we dont have to go along with them. The people that Jesus dealt with were never open and honest,they thought how they could trip Him up, or show Him up, but He knew their thoughts, and was able to challenge them. Today let us guard our thoughts,thoughts of self pity,lust,anger,whatever is contrary to holiness, love ,peace ,and mercy. [ Dear God help me to guard my thought life, help me to see the importance of this, in Jesus name Amen ]

Out of control.[ Matthew 5 v38-48 ]

I spoke last night from one of the most challenging chapters in the whole of the Bible, 1 Corinthians13, and one of the things I said was, that love is not a feeling,it is a decision. We often live by our feelings, that is why so many act the way they do, in relation to eating,and so many desires, they run with their feelings. Feelings are not always our best guide, in fact they can be very destructive, take David when he was been hunted by Saul, on two occasions he had opportunities to kill Saul, but he didnt.On an other occassion he ran with his feelings ,when he felt insulted and unfairly treated, but was stopped by a wise woman[1 Samuel 25].It is in 2 Samuel 11 we read of David letting his feelings take over, and what followed was trully awful, adultery, murder.So let us not run with our feelings, let us make a decision to love the unlovely, to forgive when we are hurt,to choose to be holy.[ Dear God help me not to be ruled by my feelings ,instead help me to be controlled by Your Spirit, and obedient to Your Word in Jesus name. Amen ]

Life a flatpack. [ Proverbs 3 v5-6 av ]

Out with the old in with the new,well not entirely, there used to be time if you bought a sideboard ,you got a sideboard, now you get a flatpack. Yesterday I spent most of the day assembling my flatpack, and I did it, with much prayer, and I joke not, still it would have been nice if a sideboard had been delivered.Life is like a flatpack,it does not come already assembled,life is a task to done,yes it would be nice it seems if we had not the task of assembling it. Most people do their best, most people do it imperfectly, but still we must not judge , what is important if we are Christians is to commit our lives everyday to our Lord, and trust Him, to overrule in all things. If we do this He will undertake, there is one sense ,life is a do it yourself affair,but as Christian ,we believe our Lord will help us ,to do it ourselves, stange but true. [ Dear Lord help us in the task of assembling our lives, that in all things we may glorify You. Amen]

The open door [ Revelation 3 v8 ]

As I look back on my life I see so many times I have prayed for doors to open, and they have, but often it required a great deal of patience on my part,for God does not work according to my time table. This is a lesson we all have to earn, living and moving at Gods moment, waiting and not get tired of waiting, often we do and we cry out how much longer Lord before You answer,yet God says wait. And in that waiting God is teaching us lessons, teaching us to trust Him,and learn that valuable lesson of patience. We must also learn the important lesson of weakness ,yes weakness, and a spirit of dependance on God, the greatest of saints had to learn these lessons. The race is not to the strong , but to those who have recognised their weakness, dont worry about your weakness,the great apostle was told that Gods strength was made perfect in his weakness, and that Gods grace would be sufficent for him.[ 2 Corinthians 12 v1-10 ] Yes doors will open, doors that no one can close,but in His time, and when He has prepared us ,to take up that opportunity . [Dear God we ask for grace to wait for that door of opportunity to open, as we wait ,help us to have patience, and to yield to your purposes in our lives in Jesus name Amen ]