Is God in Control

Is God in control? We all know the story of Joseph being sold to Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh. Can you imagine what joseph thought as he set in prison being accused of raping Potiphar's wife. I have done everything asked of you Lord and this is what I get? I am sure it never crossed his mind that the Lord was preparing him to be able to rule later in life. Today, we go through the same thing. Something hard is happening in our lives something we do not understand, something not going our way. We like to place blame, why? Because it is easier to place blame on someone else than to look at yourself in the mirror.

So here is my question for you? Who are you blaming for the circumstances that you are in?

We focus on the impossibility of the circumstances instead of the greatness of our Lord. As a result we are discouraged and need to blame someone, so we look for the one we feel responsible for our despair. When we face the fact that God could have prevented our whole mess – and didn't –we often blame him excerpt from the "Bait of Satan".

The whole point of this story is to show that Joseph never took up an offense…. He stayed in the will of God. He had many opportunities to pick up an offense, but he chose not to.

Nothing can come against us without the Lord's knowledge.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bare, but if you are tempted He will always provide a way out so that you can stand against it

1 Cor. 10:13

The cup

Every day this week I wake to John 17. I have read it every day but yesterday, but I am not sure what I am seeing 14-15-16-17 are some of my favorite books of the bible. The one thing I feel I am getting from this is in verse 26 I have made your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Do I love people as much as He loves me? Can I tell you that right now there are people that I know I don't love as much as He loves me? There is the rub. I don't want to pose in this area. I want to be real and genuine. So after I read chapter 17 I went on to 18 and stopped right here
So Jesus said to Peter, "Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" So now as I ponder I wonder if the cup I don't want to drink from is loving others as much as He loves me. Keep in mind that cup could be anything.

Has the Lord given me/you something do and you have chosen not to drink?

 

Kee

 

 

 

 

    

Get out of the way

My devotion this morning took me to 2 Thessalonians 1, but it was verses 11 and 12 that got my attention. Then when I read it in the Message it spoke even more. I believe that once again it centers on trust. Will I trust myself to get out of His way to do what He needs to do so that my life will honor Jesus? I want to be honored. I want Jesus to be glorified in me. I want to be the person that when he walks in the room the spirit in the room changes for the better not worse.

Have a Blessed day!

Kevin

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.The Message

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.NASB95

Trust

I woke this morning asking …. What do you want me to read? I hear John 17. So I get up and pray for the Lord to reveal himself to me in His word. Sometimes I just have to be reminded of what Jesus did. It is so easy to take for granted if you are not careful. I decided this morning that I would give the Lord my first time and not the leftovers. I got up and read and did not check my email or read the news. I spent time with Him. That is been my biggest problem as of late…. Finding time too fir Jesus in my day. You make time for what is important in your life. IF JESUS IS IMORTANT THEN YOU WILL MAKE TIME FOR HIM. So I read John 17 and then I read one of my devos and it took me to Psalm 37. Now let's back up for a moment to Church Sunday. During the worship I asked the Lord what is 2012 about and before I could finish the thought I heard the word "Trust" I immediately told Kelly that, and she said isn't that kind of generic? I thought for a moment and then I said "is it generic when the Lord speaks? She said no and then the Lord gave her a word and she begins to write. Now fast forward to today. As I am reading, several scriptures jump out at me Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.NASB95 Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.NASB95 Psalm 37:9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.NASB95 Psalm 37:34 Wait for the Lord and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.NASB95. The whole Psalms 37 was a huge read this morning but theses scriptures really stuck out to me.

Trust and wait for 2012

The message Sunday was basically about how hard it is to fall when you are doing battle. David did not fall until he went home and stopped fighting. He sent Uriah the Hittite to fight for him. That is when he saw Bathsheba and then he made a decision and the rest is history. How many times do you think he saw Bathsheba before he made the decision that he did? We have to take the fight to the enemy. We can't sit around and send someone to fight for us.

So the question is this. Are you fighting? Are you Trusting and are you waiting?