Impatience

Impatience is a destroyer of faith. When we become impatient we begin to try to work things out on our own – we wonder if God is ever going to come through – what’s taking sooooooooooo long? Those kind of thoughts come from doubt and bring fear – fear that it is never going to work out right. Doubt and fear will choke out the promises of God’s word – they can out weigh faith, if we let them. We must stand with confidence in God’s word if we expect to see God’s promised fulfilled.

” But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8

Abram followed God from his home out into the middle of nowhere because God made him a promise. A promise that he would possess great land and be the father of many nations. But Abraham never really took possession of the land he had been promised – he lived the life of a nomad – moving from place to place but all the time he held fast to God’s promise.

What is it that God has promised you? What have you left to follow God? No looking back – keep your eyes on the prize of the high calling of God. Don’t give up – don’t fall back. Move forward – continue to follow in obedience to what God has put in your heart.

“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him…By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she[f] considered that the One who had promised was faithful. 12 Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore.” Hebrews 11:6, 8-12

Keep going – A friend of ours told us once “If God says go north He will provide, if you go south you’ll think you died”. Follow God and He’ll lead you to your promised land.

Forgiveness is Important

For over a week now the Lord has really been impressing me with how important forgiveness is. This truth brings me to focus on how much I have been forgiven.

To the Lord, sin is sin. We sometimes refer to the “little white lie” or “one of the big sins” but that’s not how God sees is at all. In fact in James we’re told if we break one we are guilty of all.

“But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned.

10 If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all.” James 2:9-10 CEV

This isn’t an indictment to show us how bad we are but it is a revelation that not one of us can earn our own salvation, we all need Jesus!

Bringing us back to forgiveness we must understand that as the Lord forgives everyone of our sins and shortcomings we must also forgive.

This morning I was reading a devotional by Max Lucado and it hit home. I’d like to share it with you.

“A Grace Giver

Forgiveness is not foolishness. Forgiveness, at its core, is choosing to see your offender with different eyes. By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? This is a huge issue in Scripture! Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners.
Remember his story in Matthew 18, about the servant freshly forgiven a debt of millions who refused to forgive a debt equal to a few dollars? He stirred the wrath of God. “You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt. Shouldn’t you have mercy just as I had mercy on you?” (Matthew 18:32). In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace. And we’ve been given grace so we can freely give it. See your enemies as God’s child and revenge as God’s job.
From Facing Your Giants”

Each of us will have opportunities today to forgive, I pray we are grace-filled in each situation.