Risk-Free

Living risk-free is essentially living faithless. We have to take risks and trust God with the outcome. I’m brainstorming here, but don’t the things we celebrate in life usually require risks?

Sports. While we want consistency and accuracy, we applaud the player who takes a risk. We don’t always want them to risk their body or a play, etc. but we usually congratulate the risky move.

Economics. We’re talking about savings and entrepreneurship in my class. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. Entrepreneurs make risky investments, and they help keep our economy afloat. However, the risks have to be taken.

“Take a risk in your career. Pursue your dreams. Go out on a limb.” All things we’ve heard, celebrated others for doing, and hoped for for ourselves. We’re happy they took a risk. So, it must be important for us to take risks to share the Gospel.

We don’t need faith to live a risk-free life. We don’t need faith to live predictably. The challenge is to live a life you need God for, to live a life that requires exceeding faith so that God can show His exceeding faithfulness and others can see it. It must be important for us to risk our plans to share Jesus. We must be willing to make a risky investment in other people. The greater the risk, the greater the reward, and I’m not talking about temporary materials. I’m talking about eternal rewards stored up in Heaven.

Matthew 6:20 NLT [20] Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

Inconsistency

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

While several traits raise a red flag for me, I’d say inconsistency is one. I picked inconsistency because it comes in many forms.

Inconsistency comes in the form of lying. When your story continues to change, it’s a lie. When your words and actions are inconsistent, let’s be honest, it shows that you’re a liar. Liars can’t be trusted.

When your actions are inconsistent with what you confess your character to be, that’s a problem. I know that’s why people have issues with believers, leaders, and politicians. What is said tends to be inconsistent with what is actually done.

Lack of consistency also equals a lack of dependency. I can’t depend on someone who is inconsistent. How can I put faith in someone who might not show up when I need them most? That sounds like disappointment waiting to happen.

Familiar Scriptures – Psalm 23 (Podcast)

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1806754/13148381-familiar-scriptures-psalm-23

Why ruin a moment for one that may never be?

I’m ruining my present by worrying about my future. There’s a reason God says today’s troubles are enough for today. 

Tomorrow’s troubles can be dwelled on tomorrow. 

Is death a real reality? Yes. Is it unhealthy to think about death? Tune in to hear my thoughts.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1806754/13148384-why-ruin-a-moment-for-one-that-may-never-be

Forms of Fear

Isn’t it easy to mask fear? When we talk about facing our fears, some things are easy to process. A fear of snakes or spiders, we can see that in a person’s reactions to them. Of course, there are rational and irrational fears. However, to the person that’s afraid, all fears seem rarional. What about the fears that we create?

I think it’s easy to mask fear as calculations. We calculate the risks so we don’t take the leap, but we really just don’t want to change. We’ve been hurt in relationships, so our fear of commitment is really just a lack of trust.

What if we stopped giving fear so much power and just started acknowledging what’s really going on? Maybe you’re not afraid of writing the book. You just don’t want to be vulnerable? The new job may be risky, but it’s more so that you don’t want to give up current comforts.

Let’s name what we’re really facing and handle it. Fear comes in many forms, but let’s stop empowering it.

Don’t Let Pride Get in the Way

But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’”
2 Kings 5:11‭-‬13 NLT

Takeaway: Don’t let your pride get in the way.

1) In the beginning, we start with a servant girl’s suggestion to visit a prophet that can heal. Pride could have caused Naaman to ignore her.

2) When Naaman received simple instructions, he almost didn’t do them. He was a well-known warrior, so he might’ve thought the Prophet would or should come to see him to heal him.

3) I always wonder why Naaman thinks he should at least bathe in the best waters. He has leprosy, an extremely contagious skin condition. Typically, those people were outcasted, not able to be amongst society, let alone in the king’s court.

4) Naaman’s pride almost cost him his healing, but more importantly, it almost cost him the opportunity to see and know the one, true God.

5) Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, believes that Elisha let Naaman off too easy. He believes that Elisha should’ve taken all the payment Naaman offered. In the end of the chapter, Gehazi shows us what else pride can lead to– greed.

Due to Gehazi’s greed, he lies to Elisha about going to take Naaman’s payment. And is himself given leprosy for his deceitfulness.

First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
Proverbs 16:18 MSG

Familiar Verses Podcast

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1806754/

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. – Proverbs 3:5‭-‬6 NLT

If you’ve been a follower of Jesus for a while, unfortunately, it’s easy to gloss over this scripture. Or rather, it’s easier to just rush through and read it because it’s one of those scriptures that people quote a lot or one of the first ones people memorize. In this episode, I’ll discuss why it’s important to continue to put those familiar scriptures into practice.

I Believe

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” – Luke 1:45 NLT

So, this is Elizabeth’s response to Mary at the time of their pregnancies.

Elizabeth is pregnant with John, Mary with Jesus. So, when Mary comes to visit, John leaps with joy in Elizabeth’s stomach because the Savior is ALIVE in Mary’s womb. However, the good news doesn’t just stop there.

Elizabeth calls Mary blessed, but, why? Because she believed that the Lord would do what He said. So, I have to ask, would it be any different for us?

If Mary was blessed because she believed God would do what He said, won’t we be? What would happen if today you and I said, God I don’t understand this, but I believe what You said? This doesn’t feel good right now, but I believe what You said. I’m not sure about this but I believe what You said.

What might happen in our lives if we truly believe what God said and stood on it?

Proverbs 3

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. – Proverbs 3:5‭-‬6 NLT

If you’ve been a follower of Jesus for a while, unfortunately, it’s easy to gloss over this scripture. Or rather, it’s easier to just rush through and read it because it’s one of those scriptures that people quote a lot or one of the first ones people memorize.

Isn’t that the problem we run into with memorization and familiarity? Sometimes we cause them to lose their luster because we stop viewing them in awe. But the Scriptures should never lose their awe. They are always God’s living and active words.

I’d say, the longer you walk with Christ the more you should stay conscious of this call to action. It gets hard to trust the Lord when sickness comes. What about when death hits your family? When anything we don’t want to happen happens, our trust wavers, and sometimes rather quickly might I add.

It’s easy to start to depend on our own understanding. We wouldn’t say that, but whenever we make decisions without God, we’re choosing our understanding. Whenever we make decisions and then ask God to bless them without consulting Him, it’s leaning on our own understanding. When we believe God should have handled things differently, we’re taking His place.

Don’t rush through Scripture. Don’t read the Bible as a mundane task, or item on the checklist. Begin to take those familiar passages and evaluate your life. Have you been putting them into practice? I can quote these verses every day, but if you asked me whether or not I do them, that’s a different question, and that’s the most important one.

Romans 12:6

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. – Romans 12:6 NLT

In His grace, meaning in God’s goodwill, He has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. Isn’t it nice to know that God intentionally made us completely different? If we could all do the same things well would that be any fun? Would anyone truly be unique if that were the case?

I love that it says for doing certain things well. We don’t have the same gifts to do the same things well, but certain things that are specific to our abilities.

Then Paul dives into spiritual gifts. First up, the ability to prophesy. Prophesy being the ability to divinely predict what will happen in the future. This isn’t tarot cards or crystal balls. This is God-ordained, Holy Spirit revealed prophecy, not magic.

God gives a person the divine inclination to say something and He uses it for His glory. If it’s truly from God it will come to fruition.

Paul’s instruction if this is your gift is to speak out with as much faith as God has given you. Why? Well from what I’ve seen, with this gift I think a lot of people are expecting a message from a prophet every time they see them. While that may happen, there really are some things God wants to reveal to you by you spending time with Him. However, He may confirm it through a prophet for your sake.

Also, it takes faith to speak up and out. One has to be really sure it’s a message from God or else they risk tarnishing their reputation or being a false prophet.

Lastly, people tend to think that the prophecy will happen in the moment. Sometimes it’s immediate and sometimes it’s a long way down the road. I think if a person is a prophet it can be easy to start questioning yourself. After 10 or 20 years, one may begin to wonder, did I really hear that correctly?

And what’s interesting is that we all do it. We all second guess what we hear from God after it looks like it’s not going to happen. Yet, we must always remember that God is faithful and it’s only by having a true relationship with Him that you will hear Him and hear Him clearly.