The world has become even more flashy, busy and noisy full of distractions with breaking news stories and many versions of social media to capture our attention! The rising and falling temperatures everywhere raise concern for everyone, as the world changes and shifts constantly! However, God says, there is nothing new under the sun! Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” This is why it’s so important to be in scripture so we can be ready! 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 NIV, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” We need to stand firm and stay awake, alert and sober minded by keeping our lamps full! The distractions of this world can consumed us mentally and even weigh us down! As we drive down the road or even walk down the street, news and even music is playing everywhere! You don’t even have to try, news is everywhere no matter where we go! The need to know is overwhelming! What we consume in our minds by what we watch or read effect how we think and how we live out our day! We can get consumed by all the world events along with everything going on in your lives which can effect our emotions, reactions, and decisions! We need a filter to help us filter out the garbage! The filter we need is God! 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” The world around us is huge but God is in control of it all! Revelation 1:8 NIV, ““I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” God is our filter!
We can learn so much from the Bible as we live out our own lives! Exodus 14:13-18 New King James Version! Moses said to the people, “the Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” In the NIV, It says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”Be Still (you shall hold your peace), really caught my attention! You shall hold your Peace, caused me to dig deeper in God’s word! I can see why we need to hold onto Peace! Everywhere around us is the opposite of Peace or different verse of Peace! But, the Peace we hold onto come from God not the world! Romana 12:2 NIV, “ Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We need to stand firm on truth and hold onto every living word from God! Because the word of God is our solid foundation! The patterns of this world is sand! Sand is not stable and always shifting and changing. What we are going through can cause us to react the same way the Israelites did when everything looked impossible! We can learn so much from them! What would you do in their situation? What are you going through similar to this where everything looks impossible? Exodus 14:10-12 NIV, “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” The Israelites were panicking and attacking Moses saying so many things! Even today, we can react the same way when the pressure and expectations feel consuming in our lives! The cares of the world aren’t meant for you to hold! We are to give them to Jesus! 1 Peter 5:6-9 NIV, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
We need to remember who God is! “God is I Am who I Am” Exodus 3:14-15 NIV, “God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.”God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”Not only do we need to remember but we need to remind each other in love and respect to not give up on doing good, fix our eyes on Jesus who is the Author and perfect of our faith, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteous, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, love unconditionally because love covers a multitude of sins, depend on God’s understanding and not ours, take each though captive and make it obedient to Christ, and live out our day thinking about what is true because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, as we meditate on His living words day and night!
When we live out Peace in our lives, we have an unexplainable calmness within us from God while everything around us is a raging storm! The Peace within gives you confidence to do the very difficult steps in your life to get you to the next destination. The next verse says in Exodus 14:15 NIV, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”Be still (peace) an action preparing the steps to move forward! Now God says, Move On! We are not meant to do nothing by staying still! When you seek God first and His righteous in prayer and reading the Bible, your choosing His ways and not your own way! The world is always full of choices and is full noise telling you to go this way it that way! The voices are overwhelming! However with God there is only one way and that is “through” Jesus, God’s one and only Son! We need to follow the Spirit of God! We must move on (go), trusting God will lead the way! I’m sure, the Red Sea looked like a closed door, but It wasn’t! Just because a door looks closed doesn’t mean it really is! Also, just because a door closed on you, doesn’t mean it was closed by God! As we move on forward, we need to stand firm on the rock (Jesus) keep praying, keep trusting God and follow Him! It was impossible in the eyes of the Israelites! However, nothing is impossible with God! Just like for me last summer, it seemed impossible especially not knowing if we were suppose to stay there or go. But, through prayer we continued moving forward to building and repairing where we lived at the time! Then as we worked, we received a call! God showed us the answer! We must go! We wanted to just be delivered from place and felt stuck! We felt as though the harder we tried to leave something kept us there! However, when under pressure we look at our situation through what we are going through! However, God has a bigger and clear view because He is God the creator of everything and everyone! God loves everyone and it wasn’t just about us! God has no favoritism! It was about everyone involved in our lives and who was on the land with us! We don’t know God’s plans but we know all of us are together for a reason! Just as he knit us in our mothers womb! He is spiritually knitting us in the Body of Christ! We didn’t accomplish everything on this land, God did this through our sisters and brothers in Christ! It seemed like forever to get everything moved and we still had so many details to where we would go next, but we continued to trust God by fixing our eyes on Jesus and knew it would be worked out as we continued forward! God will show you the way, but it definitely doesn’t always happen right away, sometime it’s right at the last minute! When you live out your faith in God, other people with be drawn in. It looked like a closed door and seem impossible but just like the red seas opened, we too, must trust God and move on “go”! We can’t just sit and wait for everything to unfold! We need to be still (you shall hold your peace) live out what you believe to be true by trusting God and move on (go) as God amazing and wonderful ways unfold!
Today, I’m sitting here in the heat watching my beautiful children drive each other around on ice chests in the yard! I’m looking back at this moment last summer, thinking as I’m reminded, God works in action! We continued moving forward as we stayed close to God all the way through! He faithfully brought in sisters and brothers, and our family to help get us out of an impossible situation! Where we went wasn’t expected but a wonderful blessing in the waiting! Through it all we first and most importantly, seek God and His righteous as we pray through our day in each decision! We must also, be completely humble! No matter what, God will be with you and everything He plans for your life is for good for those who are called according to His purpose! So, knowing that helps me when it’s so hard to see where or when, especially in the heat right now. The heat pokes at the flesh but we need to follow the Spirit of God! When you are a child of God you can we confident that He has good for you! It might be hard to see this because of the trials and struggles we go through, but it’s important we allow God to mold us to who we are to become for Him! Mosses had to go through trials too! You can be confident that all the days have been set in your life before your even born, and God has it all worked out already! We just need to be still, as we move forward because God has work for us to do, we need to actively sharing Good News in not only what we say, but how we live for Jesus! We are to be the the light by living out the love we have from God and for others because God loves us first! We are to keep going as He unfolds our day for His glorious purpose which is good for all those who believe in Jesus and follow Him! He wants none to be lost!
You are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify
your Father in heaven.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.Final Exhortations
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NIV,
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
Matthew 5:43-48 NIV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
