Monday, August 15, 2011

What to do when you don't understand

First, doubt enters in because we fail to understand that God is working our circumstances together for our favor.  Then, fear enters in because we abandon our faith in God's ability to save us.  Finally, we experience God's Discipline... Our blessings are put off for another day.   

1. Doubt- 
The battle of Gideon- Judges 6:13- "If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us?

2. Fear 
 - "Fear is the abandonment of our faith in God's abilities".
Numbers 13:28- "However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there"


3. God's Discipline
 - Israel wandered in the desert for 40 more years.

We miss experiencing God's presence and miracles.

We miss God's blessing...Israel did not enter the land.


(by Earl Seals, President of N2 Publising)

What to do when it doesn't make sense

      Here's how we get side tracked from obeying God.  

      1. We trust in ourselves (abilities, resources, talents, or ideas)

      Numbers 13:17 - Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, "Go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are strong or weak, few or many, poor or bad."

      • 2. We focus on the logical- God says that My ways are not your ways. Here are some wrong questions that we try to reason around God's will. 

        What would be wrong with      everything being planned out?"


      • Wouldn't God want us to be happy?

      • Wouldn't God want us to be safe?

      • Wouldn't God want us to be secure?

      • Wouldn't God want us to be successful?

      3. We listen to the wrong people. Numbers 13:31 - Then the men who had gone up with him said, "we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are".

      4.  We forget what the Lord has done in the past. Numbers 14:11 "...and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? Joel 2:21 Fear not, O land: Be glad and rejoice, For the Lord has done marvelous things!...

      5.  We forget who God is. Rev. 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."

      Numbers 13 (by Earl Seals, N2 Publishing)

Mine enemy

 The enemy of the future is the present.