When we are weak

Sometimes, like tonight, I want to write my blog, but I’m just so tired I consider skipping it. How often though, as soon as I start to write, the ideas start flowing. God is good that way.
2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10, But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When we are tired, when we are heartbroken, when we don’t know which way to turn in order to improve our struggle, that is when Jesus can do His thing and use us. If we know exactly where we are headed; if we know exactly what we are going to do when the next crisis hits; if we are in control all the time, Jesus can’t work through us because we are in control of ourselves. There is no room for Him when our own selves are in charge. Paul wrote most of the New Testament and God used him greatly. If anyone had the right to boast about being righteous, it was him, but he chose to be humble.
We cannot call ourselves believers if we are dependant on ourselves doing things for God.
Galatians 2:15-16, We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know a person is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Romans 4:4-5, Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
If we only follow the law we are not going to get anywhere, except that we will receive our wages. Say, for instance you aren’t a believer, but you tithe, you will receive the blessing which is on tithing. If you keep the law you will receive the blessings that come with the law. They won’t take you anywhere near heaven though. The only way to be justified before God is by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for our sins.
James 2:14 – 18, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it doesn’t have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
To me this is quite clear that if we want to be called Christians, we have to be saved by grace and we have to live out our faith practically. James is saying here that we can’t just tell someone, “Bless you sister or Bless you brother,” we actually have to dig into our pockets and help people who are in need. Here he is specifically speaking about a brother or a sister, in other words, fellow believers. In my opinion we are not obliged to just give money, or even food to every beggar on every street corner. There are people who beg and have some serious agendas. Simply giving to beggars just encourages them to beg, but that is my opinion. We cannot, however, just let other Christians go hungry and poorly clothed if we can do anything about it.
But whatever we do, we need to do it out of our weakness so that the Holy Spirit can lead us and work through us. This applies not only to giving to the needy, it applies to every aspect of our lives. If we can start being more and more dependant on God and less in control we are going to start living the lives we need to live.

Money

Up to R150 000 can get you closer to the life you want. This is the SMS I received this morning. I receive so many of these messages which tell me that I am going to be so much better off by borrowing money from financial institutions. I will be able to settle debts and pay school fees and go on holidays. This is what people are confronted with daily. This is what the enemy wants us to fill our minds with. He wants us to believe that by borrowing money we are going to be better off, and people have been able to make it look so attractive. We don’t realise that we aren’t going to be better off at all. We are going to be in bondage to the company we owe that money to. How can more debt cause you to be better off?

Proverbs 22:7, The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

As soon as you borrow money from someone they automatically have a claim on your income. You want to buy a car so you apply for finance and the car becomes yours. But technically it isn’t yours. Until you have repaid all the debt that car belongs to the finance company. In order to keep using the car you have to repay the loan instalment every month. You are in bondage to the finance company. Until the debt is repaid they have the right to a certain portion of your income.

If you borrow money so that you can go on holiday, your holiday is going to be gone and forgotten and you are still going to be repaying that debt.

Proverbs 23:4-5, Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Proverbs 11:28, He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf.

Ecclesiastes 5:10, Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

1 Timothy 6:9-10, But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.

The first part of 1 Timothy 6:10 in the KJV says, For the love of money is the root of all evil.

There are people who strive to have a lot of money. The word ‘millionaire’ is like a juicy carrot dangled before a donkey to make it move. The poor donkey keeps moving forward but doesn’t realise that he will never reach the carrot. The carrot dries out and withers and he still has not reached it. Just like that, if a person lusts after money, he is never going to have enough. Enough is an illusion. Enough does not exist. Money can be gone in a moment. Look what happens when stock markets crash! People lose everything they invested. Every time there a stock market collapses there are  multiple suicides. These are the people who cannot recognise that they have worth apart from what they own. Their money becomes their identity. They are a slave to the money and when the money is gone they believe that they have no more value.

Proverbs 11:4, Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

When we die we cannot take any money or possessions with us.

Job 1:21, Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be blessed.

Psalm 62:10, ..if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Proverbs 21:26, All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.

Don’t get attached to the money you make. It might be gone tomorrow, or you might even be gone tomorrow.

Luke 6:38, Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measure back to you.

Don’t ever be afraid to give. If you give you receive, and God loves a cheerful giver.

There you are, that’s my view on money today.

Prayer 101

I’m gathering Scriptures which can help strengthen my faith. Obviously all scripture can be used to that, but in certain circumstances different bible verses have different purposes. That’s what is so amazing about the Bible, it is a living breathing book that can serve so many purposes.

Firstly, before I look for specific scriptures for my situation, I need to know whether I can pray, how I can pray and what it means to pray.

2 Timothy 3:16 – 17  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

What gives us the right to go to God and ask him for the things we need?

Hebrews 10:19 – 22

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Luke 23:45 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

In the Old Testament only the high priest was allowed to go through the curtain into the Holy of Holies and into the presence of God. There is nothing standing in the way of a believer to have access to God. We can speak directly to Him, we don’t need a priest to intercede for us.

1 Peter 5:7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

We can’t have a proper conversation with God while we are being dragged down with worries. First of all we have to give Him our cares. We have to really give them to Him, not just for the duration of our prayer time. We have to leave them with Him. They now become His possession, they no longer belong to us.

We can also pray anywhere, anytime. And we should be praying much more than we actually do.

Ephesians 6:18

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication

What can we pray for and how?

John 14:13 – 14

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Matthew 21:22

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

John 16:24

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

John 15:16

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These verses say that we should ask in the name of Jesus. I understand this to mean that we have the right to ask if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. And we did not accept Jesus out of our own, God drew us towards Him first. If we are in Him and He is in us we can approach the throne and we can ask for what we need. We have to pray in accordance with scripture and with God’s will. We can’t pray for the downfall of fellow Christians. That is not in God’s will.

John 15:7

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

We should stay in the Word and we should not only pray when we’re in trouble. Prayer should be a daily, hourly, minute by minute conversation. God’s words should always be foremost in our lives. And we have to pray with faith. We must not  have doubts that God is hearing us and that He will answer our prayers.

Mark 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

God wants us to speak to Him. He wants to give us what He has for us. We have to be willing to trust Him and always believe His promises.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

This verse says it all. God gave us His own and only beloved Son so that we should not be lost. Why wouldn’t He give us everything else we need, and more?