November 14, 2024
How do you lead people in faith when everything seems to be going in the opposite direction? When all the odds are against you? When others are distracting and contradicting the things you believe God wants to say? When it doesn’t seem to be working, although you feel that you are honestly following what God has told you to do?
A LONELY SHEPHERD
The book of Jeremiah is a record of the leadership of such a shepherd. God called him to be a prophet in a dark season in Israel’s history. His strong, prophetic words finally led him to be thrown into prison.
But all of his words from God came true. And people realized, after the judgment, that God had been speaking through Jeremiah. His faithfulness vindicated God.
WRESTLING WITH FAITH
Jeremiah, though, had moments of doubt where he questioned what God was doing. Chapters 14-15 record such a moment. And in the middle of Jeremiah’s questions and fears, God comes with a strong reminder of what Jeremiah’s posture should be. Here it is in the Amplified and New Living translations.
Every man of God’s great challenge is self-doubt. We wrestle with whether or not we’ve heard God properly and if we are leading in the right direction. No honest leader wants to misrepresent God. And we’re human. But God uses humans. He has made us in His image and calls us to rule over this world and the next with Him. He has made us like He is so we can join Him in what He does. That’s His way.
God awakened me at 2:30 am today because he needed me to receive this and deliver it to a faithful pastor I know who is facing a great faith challenge. An important moment in his ministry career. To call him to faith. To help him run through the tape believing God. If you think of it, pray for this unnamed pastor today that God might use His word to lift him and his people to fresh belief. The city in which he pastors desperately needs this church as a great gospel outpost for the kingdom.
Perhaps it’s also a word for you, as it is this morning for me too.
January 31, 2025
What is the greatest protection we can possibly have? Where is the wisest leadership? Who can provide for us when no one else is able? Is there one who has an inexhaustible supply? Is there somewhere we can go and be protected in every needed way from all enemies? Where our hearts can be at rest, even as the world swirls around us
January 30, 2025
How could we whittle all of human living down to its two most significant moments? It’s simple.
January 29, 2025
It is not something that everyone possesses. Sadly, most do not. It is not that it is inaccessible or unavailable, but many have not heard that it is possible or feel they are fully sufficient without it.
But for those who have recognized their need and asked God to deliver them from a life without Him, they have been given an undeniable and extraordinary gift.
